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*7 



Bible Marvel Workers, 



AND 



THE POWER WHICH HELPED OR MADE THEM 

PERFORM MIGHTY WORKS, AND UTTER 

INSPIRED WORDS: 



TOGETHER WITH 



SOME PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF 
PROPHETS, APOSTLES, AND JESUS ; 



OK, 



NEW HEADINGS OF " TEE MIRACLES: 9 



BY 



ALLEN PUTNAM, A. M., 

AUTHOR OF "NATTY, A SPIRIT," " SPIRIT WORKS REAL, BUT NOT MIRACULOUS," 
"MESMERISM, SPIRITUALISM, WITCHCRAFT, AND MIRACLE," 
AND " TIPPING HIS TABLES." 






The Lord spake to the prophets "by spirits . . . whom the Lord 
filled with his aspect, and thus inspired words which they 6pake 
to the prophets." Swedenborg. 



BOSTON: A 
COLBY AND RICH, 

No. 9 Montgomery Place. 

1873. 










Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 

By ALLEN PUTNAM, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 



Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



SERIAL INDEX TO DIVISIONS. 



PAGE 

Preface 7 

John the Revelator. ... 25 

Jehovah 32 

Abraham 33 

Moses 34 

Balaam 62 

Joshua .69 

Gideon 72 

Samson 73 

Samuel 79 

Saul 85 

End or, woman of. . . . . 88 

David , . 92 

Solomon 95 

Elijah 96 

Elisha 103 

Hezekiah 112 

Job 114 

Isaiah 116 

Jeremiah 117 

Ezekiel 119 

Daniel 124 

Jonah 131 

Apocrypha 139 

O. T. Summary. .... 146 

Apostles 155 

Peter 156 

Paul 168 

Jesus. . 178 

Zacharias . 180 

Mary 181 

John Baptist. . . * . . .190 



PAGE 

. 191 
. 193 
. 194 
. 197 
. 198 
. 198 
. 198 
. 199 
. 199 
. 200 
. 201 
. 202 
. 203 
. 204 
. 205 
. 207 
. 208 
. 209 
. 212 
. 213 
. 213 
. 214 
. 215 
.217 
Satan upon Judas and Peter. 218 

Agonies of Jesus 219 

Forsaken by God. . . . 220 

Crucifixion 221 

Resurrection 222 

Parting commission. . . . 224 

Ascension 227 

Conclusion 227 



Baptism of Jesus. 
Temptation of Jesus. 
Wine from water. 
Exceptional mood. 
Sychar, woman of. 
Bethesda, cure at. 
Blind, cure of. . . 
Fishes, control of, 
Fever, cure of. . . 
Leper, cure of. . - . 
Centurion's servant. 
Widow of Nain. . 
Waters, calming of. 
Devils of the tombs. 
Sin, forgiveness of. 
Blood, issue of. 
Endowing of apostles 

Lazarus 

Loaves, multiplied. 
Water, walking on. 
Transfiguration. . 
Spirits, return of. . 
Unbelief. .... 
Fig tree, blasted. . 



MISCELLANEOUS INDEX. 



PAGE 

Aaron 45, 48 

Abraham 33 

a prophet 37 

his faith 38 

his temptation 39 

Agabus 175 

Agonies of Jesus 219 

Ananias 161, 169 

Angel 26, 36 

of Jesus 25,26 

to Lot 36 

to Manoah 74 

Apocrypha. . 139 

Apostles 155 

endowed 208 

Aprons 173 

Ark of covenant 53, 54, 70, 80 

captured 81 

Ascension 227 

Aura 21, 156, 184 

Azarias 142 

Balaam 62 

Baptism 191 

Barnabas 171 

Belief. 13, 19 

Belshazzar 126 

Bethesda. . . 198 

Bible 7, 11, 238 

Blind, cured 198 

Blood, issue ♦ 207 



PAGE 

Cana 194 

Centurion 201 

Commission 224 

Conclusion 227 

Conditions 19 

Cornelius 166 

Crucifixion 221 

Eli 80 

Elias 214 

Elijah 96 

in connection with ravens. . . 96 

bread and oil 97 

widow's son 97 

Baal 99 

his ascension. 102 

his character 103 

his return 110 

Eliphaz 115 

Elisha 104 

in connection with the spring. 105 

children 106 

oil 106£ 

Naaman 106£ 

ax 108 

Dothan 108 

his writing no 

his bones Ill 

his character Ill 

Elizabeth 180 

Elymas. 171 

4 



MISCELLANEOUS INDEX. 



Endor, woman of. 88 

Eneas 165 

Enhancement 25 

John's 25 

Abram's 34 

Ezekiel's 122 

Daniel's 128 

Eyes, opened. . 109 

Ezekiel 119 

his vision 119 

his pantomime 121 

his discipline 122 

his traits 123 

Faith 13, 19, 38, 159 

Fever 199 

Fig tree. 217 

Fishes . 199, 212 

Fox, Mrs 17 

• 

Gabriel, man 131 

angel 180 

Gehazi 107 

Gideon 72 

God 28, 32, 44, 177 

Hananiah 118 

Herod 166, 189 

Hezekiah 113 

Holy Ghost. . 13, 19, 156, 160, 161, 

164, 173, 182, 191 
Hydesville 17 

Isaiah 116 

Issue 207 

Jairus. . 207 

Jehovah 32 

Jesus. . 178, 183, 229 



Jeremiah 117 

Job 114 

John the Revelator 25 

the Baptist 190 

Jonah 131 

Joseph 187 

Joshua 69 

Korah 58 

Lazarus 209 

Leper 200 

Loaves • 212 

Lot 36 

Lystra 171 

Manoah 73 

Mark 172 

Marvels 8, 10, 21 

Marvel workers 8, 13 

Mary 181 

Miracle 12, 18 

Miriam 57 

Mood 197 

Moses 40 

bush 42 

rod 45 

inn. 46 

Pharaoh 49 

mount 55, 57 

wife 57 

meekness 58 

eulogy 60 

character 62 

Naaman 107 

Nam. 202 

Nature 13 

Nebuchadnezzar 124 



6 



MISCELLANEOUS INDEX. 



Paul 168, 178 

Peter 156, 167 

Philip 165, 175 

Prophets 26, 85, 175 

Rahab 69 

Resurrection 177,222 

Revelation 27 

Rod 51 

Samson. 73, 78 

Samuel, 79,82,85 

Sapphira 161 

Saul 85,87 

Satan 93, 114, 192, 218 

Sceva 175 

Shadow 162 

Shadrac 124 

Sin 205 

Sodom 35 

Solomon . 95 



Sphere 156 

Spirit. 115, 145 

in the 25, 29 

Spirit aura 157 

Stephen 164 

Supernatural. 12 

Temptation 192 

Testament, Old 146 

Thyatira. 172 

Tobias 141 

Tobit. 139 

Tombs 204 

Transfiguration. 213 

Unbelief. 18, 215 

Woman of Endor 88 

Zacharias. ••»•••• 180 



PEEFACE. 



Very deep and wide-spread reverence for the Bible as ultimate 
authority in all matters of which it makes any mention, prevails so 
extensively, that upon the presentation of any new view in science, 
in philosophy, or in the interpretation and classification of strange 
phenomena, the popular mind asks whether the view conflicts with 
the Scriptures or not. If it does, or is supposed to, its correct- 
ness is instantly questioned, and the view is assumed to be unsound. 
The popular argument, briefly stated, is this : " The Omniscient One 
has said otherwise in the Bible — therefore the novel doctrine is not 
true." This mode of reasoning is a great barrier to ready reception 
of new-found facts among the works of the same Omniscient One, 
and of deductions fairly made from them by genuine science and 
sound philosophy. Still, if all statements which the Bible contains 
are absolutely and unqualifiedly the very words of an Omniscient 
and Infallible Inspirer, the popular mode of reasoning from it is 
commendable and philosophical. 

The fundamental question whether the Bible is, in such a sense 
or to any such extent as the popular mind assumes it to be, " the 
word " of one who never errs, is always properly open for further 
consideration. Theologians, divines, and scholastics have discussed 
and re-discussed it for centuries, have thrown upon it all the light 
available at their several stand-points, and have reached widely dif- 
ferent conclusions. Forgetting now, or ignoring as far as possible, 
all that such teachers have said, an attempt is made in the follow- 
ing work to let the Bible manifest its own statements and exhibit 

7 



8 PREFACE. 

its own implied arguments relating to its origin and to the agents 
and circumstances of its production. With much distinctness 
it indicates that the inspirers of some of its human authors, and 
the unseen helpers of its Marvel Workers sometimes, were finite 
intelligences, and therefore beyond question were both fallible 
and restricted in power. To let that book itself reveal its own 
paternity and nativity is the leading purpose of the Author, who 
feels confident that if those who most sincerely and persistent- 
ly proclaim the Bible to be their guide, will but examine its teach- 
ings in light now available, they will cease to regard parts of it as 
the immediate word of an infallible author, and will put themselves 
into much more favorable positions than they have heretofore oc- 
cupied for receiving light in whatever way Heaven may please to 
send it, whether that way be up from the rocks beneath us, down 
from the stars above us, out from the depths within us, or by in- 
spirations from unseen realms. Genuine mental freedom to listen 
trustfully whenever God speaks, and to look reverently whenever He 
manifests himself, would be a most beneficent boon to everv Bible 
reader. That we may help some to the possession of it is our 
prayer, and the hope that we may do so moves our pen. 

Significant utterances of very varied import and worth, also 
startling and instructive actions upon men and matter, all claiming 
supernal visitants as their authors, are quite common in this age. 
These are very properly inciting the world to search for, and if pos- 
sible detect and define, some occult forces and agents which must 
exist and be operating in its very midst ; and they are broadening 
the fields and deepening the wells which yield God-made foods and 
drinks for the intellects and affections of men. 

Do the marvels which are being wrought out through spirit me- 
diums now, spring from similar sources, and are they by nature such 
very close kindred with those which were wrought through prophets 
in Judea of old, as that thev mav sruide man to knowledge of sources 
from which those elder marvels came ? Perhaps they do. The in- 
quiry is worth pursuing ; and the Bible's words and facts will give a 



PEEEACE. 9 

more widely credible and conclusive answer than those from any 
other source. Its response should carry with it great weight to all 
minds which rank its authority high, and should receive in such a 
very cordial welcome. 

Modern phenomena have already prompted many persons to open 
and read anew the biblical accounts concerning the doers of mighty 
works, and recorders of significant revelations in past ages. They 
find therein much information never definitely n;;i sed before re 
ing to the source of help which the biblical penmen received, and to 
their inspirers and helpers. JVno gave personal aid to those writers 
and Marvel Workers — to ancient prophets and apostles ? What 
measure of help did they need and receive for speaking and writing 
as they did, and for working "signs and wond— by which the 
Supernal Source of their words and powers was confirmed? Be- 
that the Omniscient One immediately inspired their words, and 
that the Omnipotent One immediately put forth power through them, 
extensively prevailed, and still exista in the minds of many Bi- 
ble readers. But does that book itself either demand or justify such 
a belief in relation to all the parts of itself? Most clear, z... 
For what does it disclose ? An answer to this question is involved 
in many significant statements and illustrative facts extracted from 
it and made to constitute the subs : : e of the following work, where 
they are interspersed with, and accompanied, i ^ratements 

fie Authors observations of the action of finite spirits upon men 
sent day make him deem helpful to a common-sense and 
philosophical comprehension of the nature and source of Anxiz 

i 

This work is not a labored one — is not critical — is very far from 
exhaustive ; it lacks the graces of rhetoric and the accuracies and 
finish of scholarship. The Auth ?w of the Bible has here pur- 

posely been only such an one as may come before every intelligent 

ler who peruse n rapidly, King James's English version only. 

getting past theories and bia- a far as possible, he takes up 

the ancient record, gives a cursory glance at its contents from page 



10 PBEFACE. 

to page, thus gathers its most obvious accounts and indications re- 
lating to its own paternity, and attempts a plain report of his find- 
ings. His desire is to make a distinct presentation of biblical facts, 
accompanied by views and thoughts resultant from them, which 
shall indicate some actual agents and processes through which man 
has been favored with super-mundane revelations and manifestations. 
He is animated by a firm persuasion that the Overruling Power 
has always been self-consistent in processes, agents, and instrumen- 
talities for illuminating the minds of men, and in manifesting be- 
fore them the operations of an intelligent force superior to any they 
can put forth. Any successful effort to generate a similar convic- 
tion in other minds, must, in his judgment, conduce to their better 
appreciation of the character and methods of the Supreme Being. 
Accurate knowledge of Him and of his ways is surely helpful to 
man. 

If facts are recorded in the guide-book of Christendom which 
have been almost entirely overlooked or ignored by those who have 
sought for and used its directions, it may be a work of kindness 
and beneficence to draw public attention to them. If education has 
caused men to adopt theories concerning the Bible's origin which 
obviously must be false, provided they do not harmonize with facts 
presented in the Bible itself, no one who truly trusts to the guid- 
ance of that book with more confidence than he does to his existing 
creed, can but be thankful for any light that will aid him to truer 
conceptions of what the Bible clearly teaches upon that or any oth- 
er point whatever. 

Light emanating from modern marvels illuminates and makes 
manifest pathways along which ancient ones may have made a legiti- 
mate, natural advent to man. Guided by that light, the Author de- 
signs to lead his readers along ways in which the Bible itself may 
be seen refuting some very prevalent assumptions relating to the 
immediate source and the amount of its own inspiration. He pre- 
pares his work for the common Christian mind, and spends no time 
or thought for the special purpose of making it satisfactory to 



PREFACE. 11 

scholars and critics. His thoughts, while writing, are upon com- 
mon Bible readers of fair intelligence, and especially upon such 
among them as desire to adhere to its teachings, and at the same 
time would be glad to hold communion through mediums with 
their own loved ones who have passed on, or get help through such 
for the sick ones around them, if they can see the way clear to do 
this without violence to their biblical fidelity. Perhaps light has 
come into the world, in which the Bible itself may be seen to invite 
its readers and pupils to drink of these outflowings of fresh inspi- 
ration. The ancient and modern marvels may be reciprocally ex- 
planatory of each other, and each may be a source of healthful 
instruction and aid. 

Any merit which this work may have will lie in the running argu- 
ment which Bible facts themselves will be putting forth in proof, 
that the biblical revelations might all have come, and in part surely 
did come, from out of the invisible realms, while yet they were pro- 
duced by many distinct finite intelligences in spirit life, who obtained 
means of utterance and action through different men, and through 
the same often confirmed their super-mundane citizenship by " signs 
and wonders following " their words. Much evidence lies on the 
very surface of its own leaves, which proves parts of that volume to 
be only records of the sayings and doings of various finite departed 
spirits, possessing unequal powers and dissimilar characters, speak- 
ing through distinct and widely differing mediumistic men. Much 
of that evidence is here brought together, that it may be seen more 
in connection, or in a more compact mass, than it can be in its ex- 
isting scattered positions between the Bible's covers. 

That book is not the Author's idol now as it was in his youth, and 
yet it retains very firm hold upon his respect and gratitude. To 
him, and to millions of other persons, pain is given by the very 
many inconsiderate, intemperate, and flippant attacks made with a 
view to disparage a Book which he regards as intrinsically very val- 
uable, because he deems much of it the product of high inspiration, 



12 PREFACE. 

and the whole Book highly instructive upon many natural, historical, 
spiritual, and religious subjects. 

Science, Spiritualism, and common perception are learning that 
the book is not what theology has long claimed it to be, and are 
therefore tending to underestimate, or entirely ignore, its inherent 
merits. Such being the Author's feelings and views, "some man 
may say," Is not the Bible here to be wounded " in the house of its 
friends " ? Confessedly it will he probed there, but the probing will 
be performed by a friendly, though he may be an unskillful, surgeon, 
who sees death approaching, and about to claim the patient, if the 
knife be spared. The philosophical spirit of the age will not long 
continue to pay much respect to a book which claims to have been 
born, and to be living, high above the sweep of philosophical vision, 
and beyond the reach of philosophical investigation. The leading 
minds of this age, the philosophers and scientists of both this coun- 
try and Europe, with great unanimity, are moving in directions, and 
reaching conclusions, which detect and unearth fallacy in the long- 
asserted claims of the Bible to plenary inspiration and to be a suc- 
cession of communications made to man directly by the Omniscient 
One. 

The hand which is here laid upon that Book is not unfriendly to 
it. Frankness, however, is free to avow that the workings of that 
hand, so far as its powers shall operate, will tend to make the book 
take itself down from a skyey height to which theology long ago 
ballooned it, and cause itself to rest on a natural foundation. It 
must either put itself within the reach of science, or be shelved as a 
relic of little further use to the world. 

The words " miracle " and " supernatural " will be shunned in 
these pages, because their use unexplained might often prevent 
correct apprehension of the thought that was seeking expression, 
" Miracle " was once frequently employed to designate something 
very wonderful because of the mysterious power needful for its pro- 
duction, which yet might be only the power of finite beings. In 
that sense it would be appropriate to the Author's general view. 



PREFACE. 13 

But the word has come now generally to signify such things as re- 
quire for their production a suspension or abrogation of natural 
forces by the direct and immediate action of the Almighty One, — a 
process which probably never occurred. Therefore the word mira- 
cle will not be employed ; marvel is substituted in its place, and 
hence our title, Marvel Workers. 

" Nature " may properly be so used as to embrace all things in 
all worlds ; and when employed in that broad and comprehensive 
sense, there is no room left for anything supernatural, that is, any- 
thing above or beyond nature. We give this broad meaning to the 
term, and therefore have no space left in which to place anything 
above or beyond Nature. That word is often, and perhaps generally, 
restricted in its meaning to objects and forces which may be taken 
cognizance of by the external senses. Natural forces or laws are very 
frequently understood to be such only as come within the occupied 
domain of the physical sciences. But position is here taken which in- 
duces us to refer to all the unchanging laws or forces which act upon 
or through either matter or mind anywhere in the vast universe as 
natural ones ; and therefore nothing is conceded to be supernatural. 

The words « faith" and "belief," and the phrase "Holy Ghost," 
the reader will find having sometimes significations attached to 
them which are uncommon. The Author's interpretation of these in 
some places is drawn, not from dictionaries, but from the facts 
which they are obviously made to designate where and as the bib- 
lical authors employed them. 

Because of discarding the terms "miracle" and "supernatural," 
it has been necessary to employ others for indicating that many of 
the works and words of old, had authors who were below God 
and yet above embodied man. No doubt is felt that in Bible 
times there were found and used, within the realms of broad nature, 
forces and conditions which enabled unseen finite intelligences to 
speak to man by operating tongues of flesh, and also to perform 
mighty works in his presence by the aid of elements or properties 
residing in some human systems. Such agents and forces will fre- 



(l 



14 PREFACE. 

quently be called supernal or super-mundane, but even these terms 
may occasionally mislead, because the spirit world exists within, be- 
low, and around earth, atmosphere, and man, as well as above them. 

Persons or forces coming from beyond where man ordinarily 
takes cognizance, so that he calls them supernatural, are in this 
work termed sometimes spirit beings and spirit forces, sometimes 
supernal, sometimes super-mundane, sometimes unseen intelligences 
or forces, whatever the direction from which they become manifesto 
The rather indefinite phrase, "the unseen," has frequently been 
used as equivalent to the abode of either angels or devils, that is f 
the dwelling-place of spirits. The adjective spiritual is mostly 
dispensed with, and the noun spirit turned into an adjective as its- 
substitute, because the writer has been accustomed, perhaps with- 
out good cause, to attach more moral significance to the former 
than to the latter ; since he is seeking here to exhibit natural phi- 
losophy rather than any other, he prefers spirit to spiritual when 
used in conjunction with the beings, forces, and works under con- 
sideration. 

Assumption is made throughout the work that laws or forces com- 
plied with, or availed of, by either man, spirit, angel, God, or any 
other intelligence, pervade, partially at least, both the material and 
spirit, the physical and psychic, realms of nature ; and that, by* 
means of these, some connection is naturally formed and perpetu- 
ated between these realms which permits inter-action between in- 
habitants of the two ; also, that such forces are subject to free use 
by any intelligences who posses-s knowledge and power enough to 
control them. Saints and sinners, angels and devils, have equal 
freedom hi the use of spirit, as of material, forces and instrumental- 
ities. He that sends the rain upon the just and unjust alike, is 
equally impartial in all his bestowments,. permissions, -and helps. 
Law reigns supreme everywhere and always. Nothing u contrary 
to the established constitution and course of things n ever trans- 
pired. A theological miracle is but a myth. Natural miracles, or 
marvels, — that is, signs, wonders, and mighty works, wrought by 



PREFACE, 15 

finite disembodied intelligences availing themselves of nature's la- 
tent forces, — have appeared in all ages and nations. 

This work, though born of Spiritualism, and permeated with its 
teachings, is not a treatise upon that subject. No design exists to 
exhibit here any proofs that spirits now communicate with men. 
It is assumed that the phenomena of Spiritualism are the products 
of action pu»t forth by finite unseen intelligences. The conclusions 
which those phenomena have produced, and the lights which they 
furnish, are used freely and extensively, — so much so, that the 
work is exceedingly dogmatical in its modes, and is designedly so. 
Such compression as adapts it to the means and wants of common 
readers invites the dogmatism. Observation and reflection, com- 
mencing back more than twenty years ago, and continuing down to 
the present day, have produced convictions which are now and here 
made use of without stating with any fullness the facts and reasons 
on which they are founded. Such, or similar, grounds of belief lie 
scattered all through the records of Spiritualism; are there accessi- 
ble by the world, though perhaps not very widely known. It is 
the world's fault rather than ours, if it lacks the kind of knowledge 
needful to comprehend the bases of our positions and assertions. 
The designed limits of this book will not permit such knowledge to 
be furnished here. Essentially, for the time being, the Author as- 
sumes that many unobserved things in the Bible may be brought 
to light through observed things in Spiritualism. Strange as some 
of his statements or implications relating to the powers of spirits 
may appear, they were suggested by the words or acts of spirits 
themselves, or by some experiences of mortals, accounts of which 
he has received and credits. In other words, none of them are the 
productions of his own imagination. He holds himself responsible 
only for their accordance w T ith acts, teachings, or foreshado wings 
that the world has received through modern mediums. 

No facts are remembered which exclude the supposition that spir- 
its claiming to be man's friends and kindred, at no time prior to 
this century strove in throngs to manifest their presence to him. 



16 PREFACE. 

In all past ages he bowed in awe before supernal visitants, and 
made no inquiry as to their nature or the conditions which gave 
them access to him. So long as he was thus unfavorably affected 
by their approaches, it may have been wise and kind in them to 
make their visits " few and far between." But the world has now 
made advances in both mental courage and inquisitiveness. It can 
to-day ask any intelligence who or what he is, and also whence, why, 
and how he came. This advance changes immensely the mutual 
relations of the two worlds, and multiplies and intensifies the in- 
ducements to construct and keep open highways of travel between 
them. Teaching us, as spirits now do, that the processes and helps 
for return are all provided for in the comprehensive economy of 
broad Nature, and that they themselves are advancing in knowl- 
edge of and power over the elements, forces, instrumentalities, and 
processes which they use when approaching and acting upon man 
and matter, there is ground for expecting that their travels earth- 
ward will constantly become more frequent, and their familiarity 
with us ; and ours with them, will increase as fast as we become fit- 
ted to receive benefit from their more constant intercourse with us. 
Within the last twenty-five years many millions of earth's inhabit- 
ants have become convinced that some departed friends revisit us 
for our enlightenment and elevation. Science has failed for a quar- 
ter of a century to give the world, by her accustomed forces and 
processes, an acceptable and satisfactory explanation of the cause 
of the phenomena called spiritual, and she now begins to admit the 
action of a psychic or spiritual force. The promises of this hour 
are, that the existence of spiritual phenomena among us is to be 
embraced in the catalogue of natural occurrences, and regarded by 
the world as one of Heaven's established processes for elevating 
man. Is the process new ? No ; most surely, No. 

Appearances of spirits to mortals occurred as far back as human 
history reaches, and they have never been entirely discontinued. 
The disembodied have been seen and heard by some men in every 
known nation and age. Faith in their advent, however, had been 



-j 



PREFACE. 17 

dropping out of the mind of Protestant Christendom very fast, from 
early in the eighteenth century to near the middle of the nineteenth, 
when it was seldom avowed. Mrs. Fox and her little daughters, at 
the village of Hydesville, N. Y., on the evening of March 31, 1848, 
discovered that the author of certain mysterious noises could 
" count ten." How great a matter that little fire kindled ! Circum- 
stances soon made it the world's wonder, and induced thousands, 
both on earth and in spirit abodes, to inquire whether there was 
provision " in the nature of things " for voluntary and legitimate 
return by departed men. The visitor at Hydesville gave no indica- 
tion of possessing cloven hoofs ; and during the twenty-five inter- 
vening years since he knocked at the cottage door, spirits have 
been eagerly seeking avenues, and availing themselves of facilities 
for recommunings with their loved ones left here on earth,- and for 
elucidating the laws, conditions, and processes of their return. 

During centuries immediately preceding 1692, comers from out 
the unseen had generally, by Protestants especially, been regarded 
as the Evil One or his imps, and were met in the spirit of deter- 
mined and deadly hostility. Belief that he and his could do their 
peculiar kind of mighty works only through some embodied 
human being, who had voluntarily covenanted with him to be his 
obedient servant, made kindly, wise, and beneficent spirits perceive 
that their access to man was unadvisable, because they saw that 
mischief outcomlng from such a faith would be showered upon any 
person whom they should be known to approach. That diabolical 
faith, that formidable bar to familiar and beneficent advent of spirits 
to mortals, was mortally ruptured by the strains it encountered when 
it wrought up and executed the horrid tragedy of Salem witchcraft, 
and the wounds it then experienced soon extinguished its woeful ef- 
ficiency. Salem Village was a battle-ground on which world-wide 
mental emancipation from a cloister-born and direful dogma was 
achieved. 

From that time forth the American mind was gradually emanci- 
pating itself from slavery to diabolism, and gaining freedom of 

2 



18 PREFACE. 

thought and philosophical tendencies, so that when, in 1848, a spirit 
knocked at the door of a human habitation, instead of being anathe- 
matized as the devil, and having the door shut in his face, he was 
asked who he w r as and why he came. Though his answer failed to 
define a very welcome guest, it was at once seen that a road which 
gave him access might be trod by more welcome feet ; and better 
spirits, finding that visits by them would now be tolerated, and that 
no faith devilward would harm the friends in earth life in conse- 
quence of being visited by supernals, soon began to mingle in the 
crowd of travelers earthward. All qualities and classes of the de- 
parted have been coming — some to give and some to receive affec- 
tion, pleasure, and instruction ; some for fun, frolic, and waggery ; 
some in deep earnest, to give joyful tidings or wise instructions, to 
bathe anew in the waters of reciprocal affection with their friends 
on earth, or to lure men on in the ways of wisdom, philanthropy, 
and holiness. The highway they travel is free to all who can com- 
ply with the conditions of the return journej r , and therefore repre- 
sentatives of all classes that have graduated from earth avail them- 
selves of the facilities for return. Thus, at Hydesville in 1848, 
civility toward a distressed spirit inaugurated a new era of spirit inter- 
course with man. Japan like, Protestant Christendom then opened 
her ports to those whom she, through many ages, had denied ad- 
mission, or maltreated if perchance they came to her uninvited. 

We apprehend that it is a very prevalent opinion among all 
classes of minds that genuine spirits, if such ever inspire Marvel 
Workers, can, if so disposed, operate whenever, wherever, and just 
as men may ask them to. Semi-Omnipotence and Omniscience are 
fancied to inhere in them. Such a notion is born of an egregious 
misapprehension of facts, if the teachings of spirits are correct. 
Jesus, " because of their unbelief, did not many mighty works " in 
his own country and among his acquaintances. Recent disclosures 
render it probable, almost certain, that the unbelief there designated 
was a lack of the auras and other conditions needful to spirit oper- 
ations. Common mental unbelief in the minds of his kindred and 



PREFACE. 19 

acquaintances seemingly would have been an incentive to his put- 
ting forth in their presence marvels enough to convince them that 
he was commissioned from on high ; it would have been a cogent 
reason for his doing more " mighty works " in his own country than 
in any other place. But obviously the statement is essentially 
without intelligible purport, unless the nature of the " unbelief" re- 
ferred to was, in and of itself, a bar to such performances. We 
have become convinced, as will appear in the body of this work, 
that belief faith, unbelief, and Holy Ghost were frequently used in 
the Scriptures to designate mediumistic states and conditions. 
The lack of suitable facilities at a particular time made Jesus un- 
able to perform marvels freely and extensively among his own peo- 
ple. That lack of right conditions was expressed by the word 
unbelief Such conditions, probably, were physical much more 
than mental or moral. 

The assertions of spirits very generally, and their many observed 
failures to operate where their disposition to do so is manifest, teach 
that the conditions needful to their successful workings of marvels 
are very nice, and not constantly attainable. Seemingly they must 
be able to command and manipulate the auras of all strong-willed 
spirits and mortals immediately present at a seance, and thence 
produce an harmonious compound aura to use as an essential in- 
strumentality for distinct communication to man. This compound 
they can make only where they can command some distinguishing 
properties which exist abundantly in such organisms as are termed 
mediumistic ; and this they can seldom do, even when near by a 
medium, if either atmospheric conditions or the mental states of 
bystanders are very strongly unfavorable. Do you ask why your 
friend, making a return voyage across the spirit ocean, does not 
steer his bark into your waters ? The probable reason is, that 
nature has given to your harbor neither anchorage-ground, space, 
nor deep water. Nature bars him out from you as effectually as 
she does ocean steamers from inland towns. The stationary dweller 
on the sides of Mount Hoosac may, perhaps, almost as rationally 



20 PREFACE. 

disbelieve in the advent of huge steamers to New York, because 
none such ever ascend the little tributary to the Housatonic, that 
runs by his door, as you may doubt the return of any spirits be- 
cause none of them ever made your premises their port of entry. 
Natural obstacles to their close grappling with gross matter are great 
enough to make the perceptible return of most spirits a somewhat 
difficult and exhausting process at any time ; and it is entirely im- 
practicable excepting where a special quality of a compound aura 
can be generated, kept, and supplied. This aura, compound prob- 
ably of emanations from or properties of both spirits and men, was 
in the Bible often called the Holy Ghost — that is, a whole, or sound, 
or wholesome spirit, or aura, or breath, or atmosphere. " Holy " 
is from the same root as " whole," and often signifies soundness, 
completeness, excellence ; while " Ghost " is a translation of the 
Greek pneuma, which is sometimes rendered spirit, sometimes 
wind, and sometimes ghost. A sound or helpful aura is all that 
the phrase holy ghost need import, unless something in the context 
where it is used requires its greater extension. 

What makes some persons very much more susceptible than oth- 
ers are to mesmeric influences, or the forces which emanate from 
embodied minds ? It is probably some peculiarities of constitution, 
temperaments, or fluids. This is a vague reply, but it is as definite 
as our knowledge permits ; and who will tell us more and better ? 
Something causes the differences in men's susceptibility to the ac- 
tion of mesmeric passes ; and the same something probably causes 
some persons to be much more subject to the action of disembodied 
minds than others are. It is through none but susceptible persons 
that spirits can make their presence manifest, and put forth their 
thoughts in human language. And even within such limits, still 
narrower bounds confine them. Long-continued observation teach- 
es that there must be harmonious coalescings or blendings between 
the spheres or auras of not only the controlling spirit and the sub- 
ject he operates upon, but between the spirit bands then attendant 
upon the controller and the controlled. Harmony and affinity far 



PREFACE. 21 

around are needful to success. The reader will find, when he comes 
to the experience of Daniel, that he had to wait in mourning three 
full weeks before the services of a special spirit could be had, 
whose powers were nicely adapted to meet his needs. But the 
simple presence of the coalescent auras, or magnetisms, or spheres, 
is not all that the case requires. These auras are but raw materi- 
als out of which spirits construct grappling irons, by which to hold 
themselves to matter, and also various other impJements by which 
to operate upon matter and man. Possibly the nervous fluid by 
aid of which any individual's mind is enabled to control his body, 
is as good an emblem of the need and offices of the aura essential 
to spirit action among us, as anything else that science attempts to 
deal with. 

What are the marvelous works of the present age, which have 
called forth such a re-examination of ancient marvels and mar- 
vel workers, as resulted in the composition of these pages? 
What the prominent mighty works which have been wrought out 
through spirit mediums ? Little raps, and tippings of tables, came 
first. Soon there followed many fluent and occasionally lofty and 
polished utterances through the lips of some who had never learned. 
Sometimes, too, the utterances were in languages which the seeming 
speakers were entirely ignorant of. Anon, pencils in the hands of 
either the educated or the illiterate would record all grades of com- 
position, from the nonsensical, botched, and foolish, to the profound, 
methodical, polished, and wise. Many a time, too, the pencii has 
done its own writing without help, so far as man could see. Clair- 
voyance and clairaudience have been unfolded, which let individ- 
uals see and hear spirits, describe their appearances, forms, and 
dress, and report their words of hate or folly, of love or wisdom. 
Again, these spirits w r ould signify their presence by touch, and give 
to a friend precisely the sensation he would experience if his arm 
or any part of his body was grasped, patted, or pressed, by a veri- 
table hand of flesh and bones. Furniture, untouched by human 
limb or by machinery, has tipped out responses to inquiries. Wa- 



22 PKEFACE. 

ter has been changed into wine. A man has been slowly raised 
from the floor so high that he chalk-marked the ceiling overhead, 
ten feet above the floor, and was let down again gently as a dove. 
Internal surgical operations upon the human system have been 
most beneficially performed by spirits. They have even overcom \ 
the hold of paralysis by entering into the paralytic, and then, by 
applying a foreign will power to the nerves of motion, have exer- 
cised the crippled limb till it became sound. They have given hear- 
ing to the deaf, sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, power of 
locomotion to the crippled, and health to the sick of almost every 
variety of malady. Also they have given comfort to the mourning 
and bereaved, joy to the desponding, faith to the infidel, and dem- 
onstration of a life beyond the grave to the world. To all such 
performances the writer avows himself a personal witness. Many 
other striking works have come out upon and around mediums re- 
markable for physical manifestations. Such have been transported 
through the air and over broad waters by unseen forces : have had 
put upon their necks and wrists solid iron rings which could not 
admit the passage of head or hand, and had the same removed. 
Spirits have enabled a hand to hold live coals of fire without being 
burned. Odic or spirit lights they often produce ; they play upon 
a great variety of musical instruments ; they transport material ob- 
jects from place to place, and often over great distances. They 
are, recently, in great numbers, so materializing themselves, as to 
be visible to the external eyes of many persons simultaneously, and 
large numbers of them have been photographed. 

Some portions of such occurrences abound in every city, town, 
and hamlet. The ostensible authors of these are of all ages, con- 
ditions, characters, and attainments. These marvels have been ex- 
hibited before a scrutinizing world for twenty-five years without 
being satisfactorily accounted for by Science ; they claim to be pro- 
duced by spirits, and are establishing claims for recognition among 
things fraught with immense influences upon man for good or for 
evil j and thus they invite to themselves the careful and candid ex- 



PREFACE. 23 

amination of all philanthropists. One of their effects has been the 
generation of light, in which the Bible here spreads out before the 
public eye those of its own pages which tell the story of their own 
birth. It is an intelligible story, comprehensible by reason, in har- 
mony with nature, and can be adopted by common sense and ration- 
al philosophy, if it be in accordance with the facts. Does such ac- 
cordance exist ? Read on and see. 

ALLEN PUTNAM. 

426 Dudley Street, Boston Highlands, 
May 15, 1873. 



P. S. A reason may be asked why we have departed from cus- 
tom, and used the words to sense, sensing, and foresensing. Spirits, 
through mediums, and mediums, too, when " in the spirit," or en- 
tranced, speak of their senses as being, seemingly, all combined 
into one faculty of perception, so that seeing, hearing, tasting, feel- 
ing, and smelling are not such distinct sensations with them as with 
mortals in their ordinary condition. Spirits and mediums often use 
the word sense as a verb. That example we have frequently fol- 
lowed. We might have written perceive, but preferred to say sense, 
deeming the latter expressive of quicker perception and more per- 
suasive knowledge. 

This publication is an unpremeditated side issue from another and 
more labored one in which we propose to exhibit the similarities 
and distinctions which exist between what was called witchcraft, 
centuries ago, and the Spiritualism of to-day. 

After we had finished putting in manuscript our gatherings from 
the Bible, to be used in elucidation of those subjects, we perceived 
that the matter was vastly more in quantity than there would be 
occasion to use in constructing the woik for which the compilation 
had been specially made. 

Believing that many persons may be interested in views which 



24 PEEFACE. 

invest the Bible in new charms for us, we here put them forth, 
though in a less thorough and finished manner than we should have 
labored for had we contemplated their separate publication origi- 
nally. The work is sent forth as but a pioneer to blaze a route 
along which others may perhaps be pleased to construct a smoother, 
more substantial, and satisfactory pathway to knowledge of some 

immediate fountains of man's inspiration in all ages. 

A. P. 



Should any reader desire to look at facts and philosophy which 
generate such views as pervade the following pages, he can find 
much information, very clearly stated in scholarly manner, in such 
works as " Mental Medicine " and " Mental Cure," by Rev. W. F. 
Evans, in " The Debatable Land," by Robert Dale Owen, in " Spirit 
Manifestations," by Adin Ballou, in " Planchette ; or, the Despair 
of Science," by Epes Sargent, and in many other works from vari- 
ous authors who have been inspired penmen. 



— 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



JOHN, THE REVELATOR. 

The first verse of the book of Revelation reads 
as follows: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
God gave unto him to show unto his servants things 
which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and sig- 
nified it, by his angel, unto his servant John.'' 

That verse teaches that the revelation was in some 
sense from GW, who imparted it to Jesus Christ ; 
Christ then imparted it to an angel, and sent him forth 
as the bearer of a message, which he imparted to John 
while he was "in the spirit," or was entranced. John, 
Rev. i. 10, says, " I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, 
and I heard behind me a great voice, . . . and, 12, I 
turned to see the voice that spake with me ; and, 17, 
when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead ; and he 
laid his hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not ; I 
am the first and the last : 18, I am he that liveth and 
was dead, and behold, I live forevermore." 

It will be noticed that this personage, who was 
heard and seen by John, and at whose feet he fell as 
dead, spoke and communicated his revelation when 
John was in the spirit What condition did he intend 
to signify by that phrase ? " The first voice which I 
heard, iv. 1, was as it were of a trumpet talking with 

25 



26 mAkvel workers. 

me, and, 2, immediately I was in the spirit" There- 
fore he heard the trumpet before he was in the spirit ; 
and immediately afterward passed into a state which 
could hardly have been his normal one. At the sound 
of the trumpet his condition was changed. A sup- 
position that he was entranced is very natural. This 
being in the spirit was obviously some abnormal con- 
dition, very like entrancement, into which John was 
thrown by the action of unusually near and operative 
spirit presence. 

Who was the angel that Jesus sent to John, that 
he might make the Revelation and show unto the 
servants of Jesus " things that must shortly come 
to pass " ? The true, the unquestionably true, and 
very instructive answer is written in the Revelation 
itself, xxii. 8, 9: "I John saw these things and heard 
them, and I fell down to worship before the feet 
q£ the angel which showed me these things. Then 
he saith unto me, See thou do it not ; for I am thy 
fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets. Wor- 
ship God." It had previously been written, xix. 10, 
as follows : — 

" And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said 
Unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-servant, 
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. 
Worship God ; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit 
of prophecy." That communicating angel, that im 
mediate inspirer of John, was John's " fellow-servant," 
and was one of his " brethren the prophets ; ' yet he 
so impressed John, that even he who himself had 
" the testimony of Jesus," that is, had " the spirit of 
prophecy," even he, fell down to worship this brother 
prophet, and was stopped by the angel's statement 



JOHN, THE REVEL ATOR. 27 

that he was but John's fellow-servant, and that God 
was the proper object of worship. Thus on the very 
surface of the Bible itself lies proof that at least one 
of its books was nothing else than a description of 
presentations and a statement of communications fur- 
nished by a spirit to and through the organism of 
John, and proof also that John was so impressed by 
the appearance and influence of a returning prophet 
as to deem him God, for he fell down to worship him. 
What was the appearance of one manifesting spirit ? 
He was, i. 13, " like unto the Son of man, clothed 
with a garment down to the foot ; his head and his 
hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and 
his eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto 
fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." Such is 
a biblical description of the appearance of one bibli- 
cal angel ; of an angel who seemingly said of himself, 
" I am the first and the last ; I am he that liveth and 
was dead ; and behold, I live forevermore." Yes, the 
narrative seemingly makes either Jesus or his messen- 
ger — his angel — whom he sent to John, claim for 
himself eternal duration, both in the past and the 
future. His meaning possibly may have been only 
that he was mediately a representative of the Eternal 
One. The foregoing account furnishes the following 
facts : — 

1. The revelation, in some sense, 

was from .... God. 

2. It was the revelation of . . Jesus Christ. 

3. It was a revelation by .an angel. 

4. It was a revelation to a man . "in the spirit." 

5. The communicating angel was a human spirit. 

6. That angel was, or appeared 

to be, .... clothed. 



28 MARVEL WORKERS. 

These six points are severally worthy of remem- 
brance, and elicit a few comments. 

First. Modern opinion, as molded and directed 
both by the scientific thought of the times and by 
the revealments of spirits, generally refers all occur- 
rences to One Infinite Source of Power, whence all 
things emanate by law. However much minds may 
differ as to who or what that One Infinite is, a gener- 
al habit exists of referring all things to him or it as 
primal cause. There will be general assent to the 
statement that the revelation of Jesus Christ was in 
some sense that " which God gave unto him." 

Second. There probably will be wide differences in 
opinion as to whether a personal God gave definite 
instructions to Jesus. Was that done ? or did Jesus, 
of his own volition, using at discretion the powers and 
faculties he had derived from the Infinite Source, on 
which he ever felt dependence, and to which, under 
the name of Father, he referred all things — did he 
originate the Revelation? It is called the Revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ, and therefore may be considered 
as originating with him in the sense in which the 
word originate is usually applied to mental produc- 
tions. 

Third. An angel was sent to an embodied man by 
Jesus. Such a process for communication from out 
the heavens was in harmony with the declared meth- 
ods of eminent spirits at the present day. We are 
told that the higher intelligences make much use of 
the lower as messengers and telegraphers. Eminent 
ones, and especially associations of eminent ones, take 
more or less supervision of vast numbers of people 
on the earth, and employ hosts of other spirits as 



JOHN, THE REVELATOR. 29 

their agents in communicating with and acting upon 
man. 

Fourth. As to-day, so in olden times, the recipi- 
ents of revelations from out the unseen, were some- 
times put into "the spirit," or into trance — a condi- 
tion in which either their own perceptions were 
quickened, and their own understandings enlarged, or 
in which they were made to be simply organs for 
uttering things beyond their own knowledge or pow- 
ers of comprehension. 

Fifth. The fact that an angel, who had once been 
a human spirit, was the immediate communicator to 
John, requires us to regard one, and, so far as the rec- 
ords will sustain the course, permits us to regard any 
other communicator through prophets and apostles, 
as having once been an intelligence inhabiting a mor- 
tal body on this earth. 

Sixth. Modern carpers have sometimes pronounced 
it absurd that a spirit, deemed to be in itself almost ab- 
solutely an immateriality, should appear to wear sub- 
stantial clothing. The fact of seeing spirits in robes is 
not new in our day, for an angel appeared to John, 
" clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt 
about the paps with a golden girdle." It would be 
hard to name among all earth's metals and substances 
many things more substantial than John's vision-seen, 
New Jerusalem, which was "pare gold, like unto 
clear glass." Appearances of firmest materiality are 
not evidence against the essential spirituality of ob- 
jects. 

An intelligent mind can hardly fail to perceive, ft 
candid one, seemingly, must admit, that the book of 
Revelation contains in itself proof that its own im- 



80 MARVEL WORKERS. 

mediate communicator was an angel, and that that 
angel was the spirit of one of the old prophets. Who- 
ever newly finds such facts, and has been previously 
a believer in the infallibility of all Bible teachings, must 
be very rashly predetermined not to admit that his 
own creed as to biblical inspiration may be extensive- 
ly erroneous, if he shrinks from looking at such evi- 
dence as the Bible itself shall furnish that some other 
books in that volume had finite intelligences for their 
authors. We request lovers of the Bible to hold in 
abeyance for a little time any long-cherished notions 
as to who dictated the words and who performed the 
mighty works found in that book, and without bias 
go with us in search of the instruction which that 
volume itself furnishes relative to the £Tade of intel- 
ligences whose opinions and performances are there 
recorded for our instruction. Biblical facts and truths 
can hardly be deemed dangerous, viewed in any light 
whatsoever, which science or experience can bring to 
their elucidation. 

The substance of one book — the Revelation — 
was furnished by a finite spirit making presentations 
and uttering words to one man when he was abnor- 
mally "in the spirit." If one book was thus fur- 
nished, why may not the substance of others have 
been furnished in the same or a similar manner? 
Why is it not the first and fairest presumption that 
the method was essentially the same in producing the 
other books ? Science, philosophy, and common sense 
unite in saying that such presumption will stand firm 
until it is shown — not merely assumed, but shown — 
that some other of the books in the Bible were in- 
spired by a defined agent differing in nature from a 



JOHN, THE REVELATOR. 31 

finite intelligence, and by processes different from that 
of putting a human organism into " the spirit ' or 
trance, and then using it for the impartation of truths 
and facts from the world unseen. Whatever things 
are known to pertain to one of a class raise fair pre- 
sumption that the like pertain to each other member 
of the same class. 

The recorder of the book of Revelation appears to 
have been an entranced seer and hearer, but not a 
worker of signs and wonders. If he was in early life 
" the disciple whom Jesus loved,'' — if he was the 
author of the Gospel according to John, and of three 
short but tender and loving Epistles to the early 
Christians, — his enhancement wrought in him won- 
derful transformation as a writer. Simple and perspic- 
uous, especially in his Epistles, he rises to the grand, 
mystical, gorgeous, terrific, and obscure when under 
the angelic afflatus. 

Having thus designated the immediate teacher of 
John, and shown that he was not the Infinite God, 
but a departed human spirit, and in doing that hav- 
ing indicated our stand-points of observation and 
judgments, and also whither biblical facts may lead us, 
we shall soon give attention to some other biblical 
writings and personages connected with marvels, 
bringing them forth in such order as may be judged 
most conducive to an intelligible and instructive pres- 
entation of the general subject. 

JEHOVAH. 

Classic literature shows clearly that the gods of 
the ancient gentiles were often understood by their 



32 MARVEL WORKERS. 

worshipers to be the deified spirits of men. The 
Jews necessarily felt the influence and were much 
swaj^ed by the conceptions and practices of the na- 
tions surrounding them. And though some minds 
among them conceived of a Most High and of an Al- 
mighty God, who was far above deified spirits of men, 
still such minds made much use of the words Elohim 
and Adonai to designate invisible intelligences that 
ruled over them and demanded their obedience. The 
words Elohim and Adonai are both plural, and each 
often signifies gods or spirits, and not necessarily one 
sole Spiritual Ruler. Jehovah, no doubt, designated 
a being higher than departed spirits ever are. 

In this work we are treating of the Bible as it is 
given us in the English language. In our Bibles the 
word Jehovah occurs only four times — Ex. vi. 3, 
Ps. lxxxiii. 18, Isa. xii. 2, and xxvi. 4. In our ver- 
sion we find Jehovah prayed to only once, and that 
in the Psalm. Isaiah speaks to him as his salvation, 
his strength, and his song, or as the source of power 
and inspiration. But he is nowhere in the English 
Bible spoken of as an actor. We are not told any- 
thing that he did. The Psalmist, by praying to him, 
implied his faith that Jehovah could act ; and per- 
haps the prophet, in calling him his salvation, strength, 
and song, implied that he had the same belief. We 
are aware that a better translation of the Bible would 
bring Jehovah before the English reader much more 
frequently, and show him under different aspects. 

But in the received version enough is furnished to 
make it apparent that some of the Jews had conceptions 
of, and sometimes called upon, a Being whom they con- 
ceived to be far above 'deified spirits — conceived to 
be a Supreme Source — to be our Crod of to-day. 



JEHOVAH. 33 

It is obvious, also, that if we had a more consistent 
rendering of the Hebrew into our language, we should 
see much more ascribed to Jehovah than we now do ; 
and also, and especially, is it obvious that we should 
see much more consulting of and obedience to Elohim 
and Adonai — i. e., to gods or spirits, in the worship 
of the Jews. When some competent person shall give 
us the Hebrew Scriptures in an English dress, in which 
the words Jehovah, Adonai, and Elohim shall be uni- 
formly made to present their just significance, we may 
find that the God of the worshiping Jews was quite 
as often spirits as he was The Almighty One. 

The fact that either awe or reverence kept that 
people from frequent utterance of the word Jehovah 
indicates the possibility — ought we not to say prob- 
ability ? — that they held their spiritual communings 
mostly with beings of less Awful Majesty than he 
whose name they shrank from speaking — that they 
communed with Elohim and Adonai — with spirits. 

We think the reader will find sufficient evidence as 
he goes on to satisfy himself that the term Loed often, 
and that the term God frequently, if not generally, 
was employed by Jewish worshipers and writers to 
designate beings whom they conceived to be inferior 
to Jehovah — inferior to our God. 

ABRAHAM. 

Passing by the experiences and works of Noah, 
and some others named in the earlier chapters of the 
Bible, by and around whom marvelous works are said 
to have occurred, we read, in Gen. xv., that "the 
Lord came unto Abram in a vision, . . . saying, 
Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, . . . 

3 



34 MARVEL WORKERS. 

so shall thy seed be." The childless old man believed 
the promise in such manner that his faith was counted 
unto him for righteousness ; and yet his mental faith 
in the sure coming of some things then promised by 
the Lord was faltering, for he asked, " Whereby shall 
I know that I shall inherit the land in which I now 
am ? ' The answer was given mainly in deeds, not 
words ; it came in action upon the questioner himself, 
for " when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell 
upon Abram, and lo> a horror of great darkness fell 
upon him." Such terms point to something more 
than natural sleep. Intense blackness is no uncom- 
mon herald of entrancement, or vision, with mediums 
to-day, whose experience, therefore, is explanatory of 
the state in which Abram soon found himself. " And 
when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a 
smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed be- 
tween " certain pieces of a heifer, of a she-goat, and 
of a ram, which Abram, by command, had previously 
slain, cut up, " and laid each piece one against an- 
other." If the smoking furnace and burning lamp 
mean natural fire and light produced by man's common 
processes, the words are devoid of any marvelous sig- 
nificance. Obviously they were designed to state the 
existence and presence of abnormal lights there and 
then. Those lights were exhibited when it was dark. 
It is not wonderful that any exhibitor of fireworks 
should defer display till the shades of night come on ; 
but some may possibly inquire why mention should be 
made of the fact that it was not till " the sun was go- 
ing down " that the " deep sleep," or entrancement, 
came upon this host of the Lord. No answer will be 
attempted, beyond the single statement that evening 



ABRAHAM. £5 

and night are generally found more favorable for most 
kinds of spirit operations upon human beings than 
midday. The recorder of Abranrs experiences may 
have had reasons, drawn from knowledge of laws or 
conditions of spirit control, which made him thus par- 
ticular in specifying that he was operated upon, and 
had his vision opened, during or after the hours of 
waning light. 

After his name had been changed to Abraham, 
" the Lord appeared unto him," xviii., in the forms 
of " three men," whom he addressed as " my Lord," 
saying, " My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy 
sight, pass not away ; " that is, stop with me a while, 
rest under the tree, wash, and take something to eat. 
Yes, he conceived that that Lord who then appeared 
unto him was subject to all human wants. When he 
and Sarah, his wife, had prepared a meal, " he stood 
by the three men under the tree, and they did eat." 
So Abraham thought. Did he deem such visitors the 
infinite Maker and Ruler of all worlds ? the one 
omniscient and infallible Teacher ? Only extreme 
credulity can conceive that he did. The rules of 
grammar are confusingly set at defiance in the narra- 
tive ; yet the reader is forced to find that " the Lord ' 
which appeared, and " my Lord " whom Abraham ad- 
dressed, were, according to his apprehension, three 
men, and such men as " did eat." These men " rose 
up, and looked toward," or started on the way to- 
ward, " Sodom." "And there came," xix., "two 
men to Sodom at even, . . . and Lot, seeing them, 
rose up to meet them, . . . and they turned in unto 
him, and entered into his house, and they did eat." 
And when the Sodomites "pressed sore upon the 



36 MARVEL WORKERS. 

man, even Lot, and came near to break the door, . . , 
the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the 
house, . . . and smote the men that were at the door 
with blindness ; . . . and when the morning arose, 
then the angels hastened Lot " away from his home. 

In the above account of the operations of those 
who made themselves visible to mortal eyes just pre- 
ceding the destruction of Sodom, the terms " the 
Lord,'' " my Lord," " three men," "two men," and 
" the angels " were interchangeably used to designate 
the author or authors of both the prophecy that 
Abraham's very aged wife should yet become a 
mother, and of the destruction of Sodom and* Go- 
morrah. These persons ate with Abraham, and also 
Avith Lot ; they put forth their hands to pull Lot into 
his house ; they acted like men ; they were treated as 
mere men would be. What were they ? The correct- 
ness of their prophecy of an event which would be 
aside from Nature's usual course, and their most mar- 
velous action upon the cities of the plain, and upon 
Lot's wife, bespeak them more than mortal, while 
their appearance and many of their acts bespeak 
them less than He whom we at this day call God, or 
Lord. 

Neither Abraham nor Lot on this occasion appears 
as a direct marvel worker, though they both probably 
were mediumistic, and helpful to the angel workers. 
Their visitants must be credited with what was then 
performed. If the statement that Lot's wife became 
a pillar of salt means what such words plainly import, 
the spirit chemistry, both analytical and synthetical, 
which was there manifested, must have been very effi- 
cient ; and no less a marvel was wrought in raining 



ABRAHAM. 37 

fire and brimstone upon the cities. But who knows 
the powers of those who, disrobed from flesh, become 
themselves more sublimated than the most ethereal 
elements and gases ever manipulated by mundane 
chemists ? Who knows their powers over the mate- 
rials and forces of nature ? Or who knows what de- 
gree of approximation to the Omniscient and Al- 
mighty God in power one need make, before he is 
competent to produce such marvels as are alleged to 
have transpired around the righteous man of Sodom ? 

Abraham on one occasion is credited with the 
capacities of a healing medium. " God said to Abim- 
elech in a dream," xx., " Abraham is a prophet ; and 
he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." Seem- 
ingly the prayer would be efficacious, not because of 
Abraham's piety, righteousness, or sincerit} 7 , but be- 
cause he was a prophet. That word which to-day is 
generally employed to designate only such a one as 
foretells events, was in Bible times applied to any 
who were susceptible of visions, who manifested 
marked intuitive perceptions, or were unusually im- 
pressible. Its application was just about as broad as 
the word medium is with us, and it was used to in- 
dicate properties and acts like those which are now 
called mediumistic. The statement which implies 
that Abraham's prayer would heal Abimelech, because 
Abraham was a prophet, thereby implies that he would 
be, in that act, a healing medium. Many things came 
to him from the Lord, or, in other words, he often re- 
ceived communications and impressions from unseen 
intelligences. 

His readiness to sacrifice his dear, cherished son, 
Isaac, the child of his old age, and also of promise 



88 MARVEL WORKERS. 

from the angel world, is a manifestation of obedience 
to a supernal call which stands out so prominently as 
to make him emphatically the world's Man of Faith 
and the father of the faithful. The record says, 
" God did tempt Abraham ' on to the brink of mur- 
der. The temptation, the seemingly unnatural and 
barbarous call upon him, was perhaps for a trial of his 
faith in the wisdom of him whose voice he heard from 
on high, and of his consequent readiness to obey any 
command whatsoever from that source. To as it 
wears also and especially the appearance of a trial of 
his subjeetibilitv for mediumistic usages. 

What was the nature of the particular faith thus 
tempted or tried ? Was it simply, or even mainly, an 
intellectual belief ? It has already been stated that, 
though Abram's belief was such that it was count- 
ed unto him for righteousness, yet his intellect was so 
distrustful that he still asked, " Whereby shall I 
Jcnoic ? ' It, therefore, is questionable whether his 
commended faith was an intellectual conviction. It 
wears the appearance of something measurably dif- 
ferent from that. It looks more like a forefeeling of 
a truth or future fact ; more like a sensing of some- 
thing by the inner perceptive faculties ; like the 
u sub *t anee of things hoped for," Heb. xi., "the evi- 
dence of things not seen," In that chapter where the 
writer defines faith, and goes on to enumerate the 
works which were performed by it, he mentions that 
it was the instrumentality by which " Enoch was 
translated ; ' bv which " Xoah was warned of 
God;' by which i; Abraham went out, not knowing 
whither lie went;' by which the superannuated 
" Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed \ ' 



ABRAHAM. 39 

by which " Joseph made mention of," that is, fo 
told, " the departing of the children of Israel ; " 
by which the Israelites " passed through the Red 
Sea as by dry land;" by which " the walls of 
Jericho fell down ; ' by which " the harlot Rahab 
perished not with them that believed not ; " by which 
Daniel " stopped the mouths of lions ; " by which 
44 women received their dead raised to life again." 
Such works of faith indicate that such faith was much 
more like what are now called impressions, made, not 
only upon, but all through, impressible people b}~ un- 
seen controlling intelligences, and who are thereby 
often moved blindly on to the seeming self-perform- 
ance of acts not devised by their own intellects, and 
upon which their consciences pass no judgment. 
These ancients were commendable because they were 
pliant and reliable tools in the hands of spirit opera- 
tors. Their faith was what we now call mediumship, 
and its righteousness, or right doing, was their pliancy 
as tools for doing anything which the controlling mind 
deemed right, or, more accurately, desired to accom- 
plish. So far as Abraham and others of his class were 
concerned with marvelous works, these men were 
physical tools mainly, and in no sense morally respon- 
sible for what their tongues uttered or their hands 
performed. Had his moral faculties put forth their 
normal action, they would have palsied the arm that 
moved as if it was about to take the life of a beloved 
and loving son. Some God here tried the measure of 
Abraham's plasticity and reliability as a medium, and 
probably so smothered his self-consciousness, that, with 
no more compunction than the knife itself, he might 
have had his own arm moved to plunge the knife into 



40 MARVEL "WORKERS. 

the heart of his son. The measure of his faith was 
the depth and security of his mental and moral sup- 
pression by force applied from without. Thus viewed, 
Abraham stands acquitted of shocking devotion to a 
cruel God. The God, too, loses his unmerciful aspect 
when viewed in light which shows him to have been 
only testing the feasibility of suppressing and holding 
in abeyance the deepest sensibilities of his animated 
instrument, and thus ascertaining how far he could 
rely upon it in emergencies. The ordeal through 
which this good man and good medium passed might 
surely have been imposed by a being of no higher 
grade than he who awed John into deepest rev- 
erence. 



MOSES. 



We come now to inspection of one among the very 
marked and extraordinary men named in the biblical 
records. Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians," is the reputed author of the first five 
books of the Bible, and was the most prominent visi- 
ble actor in introducing, expounding, and administer- 
ing the theocratic government of the Hebrew nation. 
All remember the story of his infancy, Ex. ii. ; re- 
member his cradling in the flags on the banks of the 
Nile ; the compassion felt for him by Pharaoh's 
daughter, and his preservation through her manage- 
ment. After he had grown to manhood, seeing an 
Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, " he looked this way 
and that way, and when he saw that there was no 
man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." 



MOSES. 41 

It would be pleasant to regard him as having commit- 
ted that murder in the heat of blinding and uncon- 
trollable passion ; but his deliberate care to first satis- 
fy himself that there would be no tell-tale witness of 
his act, and his hiding the body of his victim, deprive 
us of that pleasure. Knowledge of his unlawful deed 
soon transpired, so that to escape merited punishment 
he fled out of Egypt. 

His fundamental motive to that bloodshed may not 
have been bad. A lordly Egyptian smote, and proba- 
bly with much severity, an enslaved Hebrew. Re- 
taliation of wrong done to his countryman moved him 
to his act of violence. Resentment of oppression 
is oftentimes very commendable ; few, however, will 
justify the process by which Moses manifested his 
indignation. Personal safety required his flight, 
and he escaped into Midian. His first known and 
gallant act there was an obvious outworking of the 
same fundamental sentiment. Some ungracious shep- 
herds there kept back the seven daughters of Ruel 
and their flocks from the watering-troughs, until these 
boors and their animals had slaked their thirst to satiety. 
Such selfish, ungallant conduct aroused the indignant 
spirit of Moses, and made him demand for the dam- 
sels equal privileges with the men. He promptly 
took the part of the fair ones, and immediately helped 
them draw water for their flocks. Such kindness, or 
gallantry, opened for him a door to both a home and 
a wife in the house of Ruel. He may have been 
about forty years old then, and also may have lived 
about forty years with his new-found friends, follow- 
ing with them the peaceful pursuits of a shepherd ; for 
Ex. vii, 7, <fc Moses was fourscore years old, and 



42 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake 
unto Pharaoh," which they did shortly after Moses 
had seen the marvelous burning bush. 

That brilliant event, the illumination of a bush 
with non-consuming light, is described in Ex. hi., and 
has long held a prominent place among the world's 
engaging marvels. 

" Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law, and 
came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.' 5 
Certain places, certain substances, certain human 
beings have been, through all past history, and are 
to-day, found to be specially favorable for spirit use 
in communicating with man. Mediumistic capabili- 
ties are constitutional and hereditary, about as much 
so as those for music. Moses was one of a mediumis- 
tic family, for Aaron, his brother, and Miriam, their 
sister, sometimes manifested prophetic functions. 
Mount Horeb w T as the ostensible birthplace of the 
active and pronounced mediumship of Moses ; that 
was, too, in later years, the scene of more momentous 
and startling operations. That mount was to He- 
brews what Delphos was to Greeks — a favorable spot 
for the reception of oracles. By its atmosphere both 
Moses and his rod w r ere mediumistically impregnated. 
That rod was ever afterward an efficient talisman. 

Moses came with his flock to Horeb. " There the 
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, 
out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked, and be- 
hold, the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, 
I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why 
the bush is not burned" Obviously he spoke of the 
light alone as being an angel of the Lord. He mani- 
fested no purpose to converse with, or examine, a per- 



MOSES. 43 

sonal angel. He sought only to see why the bush was 
not consumed. He approached it with that special 
object in view. No doubt there was some invisible 
intelligence near him, seeking to arrest the attention 
of the man. And when that God, that invisible intel- 
ligence, saw that he had, by a display of non-consum- 
ing odic, or spirit light in a bush, arrested the atten- 
tion and excited the wonder of the man, then from 
" out of the midst of the bush " he called out, " Mo- 
ses, Moses ! ' the man responded, " Here am I." 
Then said the voice, " Draw not nigh hither; " do not 
disturb the manifestation by your auras or magnetism ; 
and put off your shoes, that you may absorb spiritual 
magnetisms with which the ground around here is 
made holy, with which it is being charged while this 
wonderful light is being sustained. Shoes might im- 
pede one's reception of elements which spirit opera- 
tions in the bush were infusing into the surrounding 
soil, and therefore hallowing it, and would hallow 
whoever stood upon it also. 

A personal being of some grade was in the bush, 
and produced the seeming fire which did not con- 
sume fuel. The voice w T as audible, but no form of 
personality was seen. Moses " was afraid to look 
upon God," and "hid his face." He saw no person- 
ality. Who or of what rank was the personal angel of 
the Lord, who thus spoke from out that dazzling light ? 
Moses himself asked the same question, and the re- 
sponse was, " 1 AM that I AM." Who can find, in 
such a declaration, any meaning beyond what the fol- 
lowing will convey ? viz., I am myself, and you need 
not seek to learn anything more. The voice had pre- 
viously said, " I am the God of thy father, the God 



44 MARVEL W0BKE1 

of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,*' 
Therefore the speaker probably was. in some sense, 
special guardian of the Hebrews, whatever his rank 
in the scale of being. The words and phrases. Lord, 
God. God Almighty, the Most High, and Jehovah, are 
now almost exclusively used by writers and speakers, 
to shadow forth, as well as they may, their concep- 
tions of one Infinite Source of all things. But, with 
the exception of Jehovah, all of the above, together 
with •• Angel of the Lord." and ,% Word of the Lord," 
are in the Scriptures often applied to designate also 
anv intelligence whatsoever who was deemed to* be 
above embodied man. and some of them to designate 
any appearance which was greatly at variance with 
the usual effects of natural forces. The hidden cause 
of the non-consumption of the bush was to Mos 
u an angel of the Lord " before he heard the voice. 

No finite intelligence can comprehend the Infinite 
in full. Vfhen anv man. clairvovantlv or otherwise, 
beholds a being transcendently radiant with brightnt — 
and glorv. or listens to scad-stirring utterances from 
an unseen one. that being may be to him God ; words 
from him mav be the words of God : he mav bow to 
him in deepest possible reverence and adoration, and 
may, in all honesty, deem him and speak of him as 
i Most Higfh : he mav feel toward him as John 
did toward his angel visitant, and act. as John woidd 
have acted, if not restrained, toward a beautified and 
ascended human being. Moses saw a non-consuming 
light, and that was to him " an angel of the Lord." 
Spirit lights, equally non-consumers of material sub- 
stances, are now frequently seen, and the voices of 
those who produce them are heard. In Bible times 



such an appearance, or such a voice either, would 
have been an angel of the Lord. 

Another wonder soon followed i M 

commas st I which was in his hand upon 

the ground, ami became a serpent. Then he 
caught i dl, and it became a rod again. He 

put hia hand into hi- m. and the han< ime lep- 

ror -now. He put it in ;»nd time, and it was 

red to health. The obvious pur: se of tfa 
marvels was to induce Mc > go into Egypt in faith 

of a mission from heaven, an I :here attempt the de- 
liverance of his kindred and people from bond _ . 
But 1 plead his own lack of eloquence and his 

slowness of speech as disqualification for the work, 
and so decidedlv declined t _ _e in the mis-ion, 

that "the anger of the Lord was kindled agai: 
him.** What must have been the quality of th 
Lord 7 Distrust of one's own qualifications, nd 
telling the Lord to select a better man for office than 
himself, could no: ite the an^er t being 

Christians now designate by the term Lord or God. 
Moses was speaking to some one nd 

therefor -orue les alted Lord than him whom 
we worship to-day. His alleged objection was over- 
come by arranging that Aaron. Moses* brother, should 
"be the spokesman unto the people." The Lord said 
of Aaron. "I know that he can speak well; fa .all 
be to thee in I of a mouth, and thou shalt be to 
him instead of God." Evidently Moses was a ve 
desirable personage for receiving and comprehending 
what the Lord should in the future desire y and 

teach. But Aaron would be a better enunciator of 
supernal teachings to the people. 



46 MABVEL WORKERS. 

The aid of Aaron having been procured, and the 
promise having been made that by the rod he should 
do " signs and wonders," Moses was induced to un- 
dertake the great and hazardous work of delivering 
an enslaved nation from bondage. Accordingly he 
took leave of his father-in-law, and other friends in 
Midian, and, accompanied by his wife and family, and 
bearing with him " the rod of Giod" which was the 
identical rod that had been once changed into a ser- 
pent, he started on his way to Egypt. 

During that journey — strange, strange indeed — 
" it came to pass in the inn that the Lord met him, 
and sought to kill him." Ponder well that statement. 
The place of the encounter — at a wayside tavern — 
might in modern times be suggestive of the action of 
other spirits than invisible ones ; but we have no pur- 
pose to indicate a suspicion that any other than intel- 
ligent spirits beset this traveler at his temporary 
lodgings. The Lord which there met him, " sought 
to kill him." The bearing of this strange fact in elu- 
cidation of the nature and rank of that Lord, is what 
specially arrests attention. Moses was making his 
journey in obedience to the behests of the Lord, and 
yet the Lord sought to hill him. Was the Lord who 
called him to go to Egypt, and the Lord who sought 
to kill him, one and the same Lord ? Or did differ- 
ent Lords try to control him ? The prevalent notions 
of Christendom as to the Lord of Moses admit of no 
explanation of this scene at the inn which does not 
make The Infinite God fickle and murderous. But 
admit that Moses, like mediums of to-day, could hear 
the commands, feel the influences, and be subjected 
to the handlings of spirits of diverse character and pur- 



MOSES. 47 

poses, and the supposition comes directly forth, that 
some spirit hostile to that spirit band who were seek- 
ing the deliverance of the Israelites, some spirit whose 
sympathies were with the Egyptians, then beset Mo- 
ses, and in downright earnest sought actually to kill 
him, and thus put an effectual stop to the disasters 
threatening Egypt through their mediuraistic instru- 
ment. Certainly the doings and disposition of that 
Lord who met Moses in that inn were not character- 
istic of that Father whom Jesus worshiped, or any 
God whom enlightened Christendom worships at this 
day. 

Possibly, however, it was one and the same Lord 
wdio both started Moses on his journey, and who 
sought his life. Turn to Ex. iv. 24, 25, and perhaps 
the conjecture may arise that possibly the Lord in- 
sisted that Moses should circumcise his son, and that 
the mother, not being a Hebrew, objected to it. To 
bring the woman to consent, the Lord so belabored 
Moses in some way that Zipporah, to save her hus- 
band from threatened death, took a stone, and with 
that dull instrument barbarously circumcised her 
boy, upon which the "Lord let Moses go,'* that is, 
let him alone ; and she said to Moses, with good rea- 
son, "A bloodv husband thou art, because of the cir- 
cumcision." If the common supposition be retained 
that our Christian God was the Lord who then 
threatened murder, what an imputation rests upon 
his humanity and benignity ! Few, few minds can be 
brought willingly to conceive of him as the barbarous 
assailant of his own chosen agent, proceeding on his 
way to execute the commission which this same Lord 
had induced him to assume. 



43 MARVEL WORKERS. 

The very distinct and multiplied evidence now ex- 
isting, that some spirits often labor adroitly and pow- 
erfully to thwart purposes which other spirits are 
bent upon executing through mediums, makes it very 
probable that Moses was beset by some spirit desirous 
of preventing the accomplishment of Hebrew deliv- 
erance by taking the life of Moses, or, at least, by so 
tormenting him that he would desist from his pur- 
pose. 

If, however, any one prefers to see him always dis- 
ciplined by the same Lord, then supposition can be 
made that some stern spirit, righteous in his pur- 
poses, but rigid in his "exactions, saw that only by 
hard usage of Moses and his family could he break 
in and manage the high temper which, long before, 
slew an Egyptian, and hid him in the sand ; and that, 
having curbed that fiery man, he could make him a 
mighty instrument in redeeming an oppressed, and 
ruling a rebellious people, and therefore put him 
through severe training. By such a supposition we 
can leave Moses under the control of one Lord only, 
but one not very lovable, and not such as the true dis- 
ciple of Jesus will cling to very closely. The angel 
seen by John would be more acceptable as an object 
of love and worship. 

The assignment of special parts of prophetic or 
mediumistic functions to Moses, and of other func- 
tions to Aaron, is a point of some interest. Each was 
needed to help the other, and it was only when con- 
joined that the mediumship was complete. Moses 
was the great clairaudient, or the hearer of the su- 
pernal utterances, which he first received, and then 
repeated to Aaron, who, therefore, " before the 



MOSES. 49 

children of Israel, spake all the words which the Lord 
had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight 
of the people." Aaron was the speaker generally, 
and it was he too, generally, that held the rod and 
did the signs- Ostensibly he was the greater marvel 
worker of the two. But the commands as to what 
and when to speak and to act were given primarily 
to Moses, who " was to Aaron instead of God." 

After Moses and Aaron had met and assumed their 
mission, and their several parts in its execution, 
the Lord said unto Moses, Ex. vii. 1, " J have made 
thee a god unto Pharaoh, and I will harden his heart, 
and multiply thy signs and wonders in the land of 
Egypt," Again he says, xi. 9, " Pharaoh shall not 
hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied 
in the land of Egypt." In the first of those state- 
ments, the wonders were to be ascribed to Moses, thy 
signs ; while in the second, his Lord calls them my 
wonders. The purpose of hardening the king's heart 
was to make opportunities for an accumulation of 
marvels which the controller of Moses had in contem- 
plation, while the credit of working them might at- 
tach to either the medium Moses, or to the spirit who 
should work through him. 

Remembrance here comes up of j'outhful chagrin, 
that the good God, whom parental ^judgment and 
teachings generally presented to the young mind and 
heart as altogether lovely, and perfect in all his ways, 
should have been guilty of a deliberate hardening of 
a man's heart, or of making him an unmerciful op- 
pressor. Such an act was to God's discredit. Per- 
haps others may have suffered in like manner. The 
record plainly and repeatedly saj r s that " the Lord 

4 



50 MARVEL WORKERS. 

hardened Pharaoh's heart." With equal plainness, 
and about the same frequency, it says, " and Pharaoh's 
heart was hardened ; " and once, x. 32, the language 
is, " and Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time 
also." This phase implies that he was, through all 
those scenes, in some sense, the hardener of his own 
heart, or, perhaps it implies only that he yielded to 
those spirit influences that were thrown upon him to 
keep him obstinate till wonders enough had been 
wrought to meet the purposes of the spirit who con- 
trolled Moses. The One Infinite God had no special 
connection with those performances. 

The hardening of the heart of the king seems like 
the temporary effect of influences thrown upon him 
for the purposes of making him hold himself in un- 
relenting mood till wonders enough could be wrought 
to satisfy all the people of Egypt that the controller 
of Moses and Aaron. was superior to the Egyptian gods, 
and that their own preservation could be purchased 
only by letting Israel go free from bondage. As an 
act of policy on the part of a finite and partisan spirit 
this is admissible, but as an act of the common Father 
of all men and nations, it must seem to man like a 
departure from the ways of impartial justice, and an 
impeachment of God's perfections. Admit that Mo- 
ses was spoken to and aided by a finite spirit, and the 
character of our God receives no tarnish here. The 
Lord said he would make Moses a G-od to Pharaoh, 
and it was such a god, a mecliumistic man, who, as an 
instrument of a spirit, performed all the special hard- # 
ening that then took place. 

It would be tedious to go over the many wonders 
in detail which were wrought through Moses and 



HOSES. 51 

Aaron using the rod. The changing of waters into 
blood, of rods into serpents, and the evoking of armies 
of frogs, was accomplished both by Egyptian magi- 
cians and Hebrew mediums. But the Hebrew mar- 
vel workers went on and evoked clouds of lice, flies, 
and locusts, and also inflicted boils, hail, darkness, 
and death of the first born. It is obvious that beings 
called gods — that unseen helpers of man — were 
very numerous in those times. These gods varied in 
powers, and their human instruments were both plenty 
and of unequal capabilities. What reader fails to sur- 
mise that the Egyptian magicians needed and received 
help from the spirit world for performance of the won- 
ders they accomplished? What rational doubt can 
there be that the wonder workers on both sides re- 
ceived help from unseen intelligences? Either the 
helpers of Moses and Aaron were intrinsically supe- 
rior to the helpers of the Egyptian mediums, or Mo- 
ses and Aaron were more ample reservoirs and foun- 
tains of the peculiar properties of mediumship than 
the Egyptian sorcerers. The contest was essentially 
between finite invisible spirits. 

The rod, used sometimes by Moses, but generally 
by Aaron, was the same which, near the burning bush, 
had been changed into a serpent, and there charged 
with properties which probably ever afterward made 
its presence and use specially helpful in putting forth 
mighty works. 

When plague after plague had nearly exhausted the 
powers of Egyptian endurance and resistance, and 
the obdurated king was near being forced to thrust 
the children of Israel forth from his presence, the 
Lord of Moses said, " Speak now in the ears of the 



52 MARVEL WORKERS. 

people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and 
every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jew- 
els of gold.' 5 Yes, when they were about to go forth 
from Egypt not to return, they were either enjoined 
or advised to borrow freely of their Egyptian neigh- 
bors what they could have no opportunity to return. 
Advice to perpetrate such a breach of confidence, such 
abuse of neighborly kindness, is not compatible with 
modern estimate of the attributes of the Most High 
God, of the Infinite Source of justice and truth. 
There comes relief from the supposition that such 
advice emanated from some being distinct from, and 
inferior to, our God ; relief from the supposition that 
some finite God was the suggester of such dishonesty. 

The guiding pillar, looking like cloud by day and 
fire by night, may have been a mass of spirit aura, or 
atmosphere, dim in daylight, but brilliant in the dark-^ 
ness. The power needful to divide the waters of the 
Red Sea, and hold them up as walls on the sides of a 
passage-way, to assemble quails in countless numbers, 
and to clothe the land in manna, was obviously great ; 
but the vast space between man and the Infinite Power 
may be the home of myriads of beings, rising rank on 
rank higher and higher above us, and j^et falling far 
below our God ; some such unseen beings may have 
been the immediate deliverers and protectors of the 
Israelites. 

At Marah, Ex. xv. 25, bitter waters were made 
sweet by casting into them a particular tree, which 
the Lord pointed out to Moses. The opinion is grow- 
ing up under spirit teachings that the reason why cer- 
tain varieties of wood answer much better purpose as 
divining-rods than others, is because they are more 



MOSES. 53 

ready recipients of spirit auras, and hence more sub- 
ject to spirit manifestations and control. His con- 
trolling God pointed out one particular tree for Moses 
to use in the accomplishment of a special purpose. 

The ark of the covenant was constructed expressly 
for use as a spirit battery , or an instrument through 
which to give forth the commands of the Lord. The 
special care taken to have the ark and all its appur- 
tenances charged with the auras or magnetisms of a 
selected class of workmen, becomes very interesting in 
these days, when much wonder is expressed at the 
customary stickling of spirits and mediums for right 
conditions. Biblical history furnishes precedent for 
great particularity when constructing a cabinet for 
manifestations. The point is of sufficient interest to 
justify rather full elucidation. 

The Lord said to Moses, Ex. xxxi. 6, "In the 
hearts of all that are tvise-hearted I have put wisdom, 
that they may make all that I have commanded thee," 
namely, the tabernacle, the ark, the mercy-seat, the 
table, the altar, the clothes of service, the anointing 
oil, and sweet incense, — all these things that designat- 
ed class of workmen shall make ; all these must be 
manufactured exclusively by the wise-hearted. And 
who were they ? What is meant by putting wisdom 
into their hearts ? The language is peculiar, and 
seemingly is intended for closer application to the 
heart than to the head, which is usually regarded the 
appropriate receptacle of ivisdom. Hiram, who in 
later days made the ornaments for Solomon's Temple, 
" was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and 
cunning to work all works in brass ; ' but there is no 
special reference to his heart, and no indication that 



54 MARVEL WORKERS. 

any assistants lie should have in prosecuting his labors 
must be possessed of peculiar heart powers. For 
constructing the ark, however, and its accompani- 
ments, very many, seemingly all, the workmen had 
received from God heart wisdom to guide and control 
them.0 

We put forth no philological explanation of the 
above, but only remark that those who. have beeii 
observant of the many indications there exist that 
every workman imparts some of his own properties to 
whatever metals or substances his skill is expended 
upon, and that those properties gain an abiding lodg- 
ment in the articles he manufactures, will be at no 
loss to conjecture a reason why the God of Moses, 
when fitting up an ark or instrument specially for 
communication, was careful to select workmen whose 
impartations to the materials wrought would be mecli- 
umistic, that is, would infuse impartations favorable to 
spirit operation. Such is a common course with some 
susceptible persons at this day, even in reference to 
paper-hanging, bread-making, and many other com- 
mon arts, and especially in reference to anything im- 
mediately pertaining to spirit manifestations. Medi- 
cines compounded and prepared by mediums often 
become charged with unwonted healing properties. 
This fact has been verified in our own home. 

That ark, wrought by such workmen, was made of 
choice shittiixt wood, and overlaid with gold within 
and without. It was about four and a half feet long, 
and two feet nine inches in height and in breadth. 
Within this were to be placed and kept the testimony, 
i. e., two stone slabs, on which the commandments 
were to be "written by the finger of God." Upon 



moses. 55 

this ark was set a mercy-seat, of the same length and 
breadth as the ark, made of pure gold, with a golden 
cherubim on each end of it, the two cherubim facing 
each other, and covering the mercy-seat with their 
wings ; from between those cherubim were to come 
forth the subsequent commands of the God of Moses. 
Yes; the ark was prepared specially to be an in- 
strument for spirit communication. The two stone 
plates, written upon by spirit fingers, and that too 
amid the charged atmosphere of Mount Sinai, would 
probably become thoroughly permeated by spirit 
emanations ; and being placed within walls of gold, 
which from its fineness and density might be very 
tenacious of whatever it infolded or had imbibed, and 
being approached only by the mediumistic priesthood, 
great precaution was taken to keep the ark an ever- 
charged battery for spirit use in communicating, or in 
operating in other ways. 

Fitting instrumentalities having been thus pre- 
pared, Moses went up into the mount, and tarried 
there so long that the people grew uneasy ; demanded 
some other God ; furnished Aaron with golden ear- 
rings, which he cast into the fire, and u there came out 
this calf." When Moses came down to the people, 
his " anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of 
his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." Such 
behavior on the part of these chosen agents of some 
God is not, in modern estimation, very creditable to 
either them or him. Aaron certainly acted the rene- 
gade — turned away from the God of Moses ; for he 
made his golden calf into a God, built an altar to it, 
and said, " To-morrow is the feast of the Lord." 
Obviously that " Lord ' was symbolized by the 



56 MARVEL WORKERS. 

golden calf, and had burnt-offerings and peace-offer- 
ings brought to it. Moses, too, was then quite devoid 
of so much meekness as the primer ascribes to him, 
for his " anger waxed hot." His reverence for the 
handiwork of his God must have then run low, since 
he brake in pieces the tables which that God had 
made, and on which he had written with his own 
finger. 

The intelligent, calm, and candid intellect of to- 
day must vail its vision in the mists of its infantile 
reverence, if it perceives anything in the manifested 
character and actions of either Aaron, or Moses, or 
their God, which lifts them above some existing me- 
diumistic men, and some spirits manifesting them- 
selves to-day. This God said to Moses, " Let me 
alone, that my wrath may wax hot against the chil- 
dren of Israel." He was so exasperated that Moses 
had occasion to calm him, and said, " Lord, why doth 
thy wrath wax hot against thy people ? Remember 
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom thou madest 
promises." Thus reproved, " the Lord repented of 
the evil which he thought to do unto his people." 
Such a God surely fails to embody all the amiable and 
adorable qualities and the self-control which any lov- 
ing heart and wise head now find in any satisfactory 
ruler of the worlds, or object of the heart's best offer- 
ings. 

Subsequently Moses was instructed to hew out two 
other stone slabs like the former ones. He did so, 
and took them with him up into the mount, where he 
remained " with the Lord forty days and forty nights ; 
he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And He 
wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the 



MOSES. 57 

ten commandments." Upon his descent from the 
mountain the face of Moses shone, and shone so 
brightly that the people were afraid to come nigh 
him, so that he put a vail on his face. Such fastings, 
during which the external body receives sustenance 
and clarification through the spiritual organs, and 
sometimes becomes luminous, have been put upon 
some mediumistic persons in the present era and in 
New England. 

Turning forward to Numb, xii., we find something 
like a family jar. Moses had married an Ethiopian 
woman, which displeased his sister Miriam and his 
brother Aaron. Presumably he had said to them that 
he had been told by the Lord to take that woman as a 
wife, for Miriam and Aaron say, " Hath the Lord 
indeed spoken only by Moses ? Hath he not spoken 
also by us ? " Here comes out a very distinct intima- 
tion of persuasion in the minds of Aaron and Miriam 
that God had spoken by them as well as by Moses, 
and that he had talked differently through them than 
he did through Moses. If they felt at liberty to 
sometimes distrust Moses, and dissent from the teach- 
ings of his God, may we not allow their judgment 
and action to have some weight when we would judge 
whether he w r as always a revealer of instruction from 
the unerring One, and from none other ? How dis- 
tance does lend enchantment to many views ! 

The God of Moses, however, who either was the 
most powerful one operating upon that family, or else 
had the most efficient medium, soon put Miriam and 
Aaron down, and enabled Moses to triumph. But we 
will remember that Moses himself is the reputed re- 
porter and recorder of that transaction, and may have 



58 MARVEL WORKERS. 

been influenced by a common propensity in writers to 
justify the part they personally have taken in any quar- 
rel. In that narration either Moses himself, or some 
one else for him, says, in parenthesis, " Now the man 
Moses was very meek, above all the men that were 
upon the face of the earth." But the word meek 
must bear a very strange meaning when made descrip- 
tive of the slayer of the Egyptian and the angry 
breaker of the commandment tables ; pugnacious and 
wrathy seem more accurately descriptive of him in 
some of his moods. 

There is mention in Numb. xvi. of very extraordi- 
nary occurrences attendant upon the revolt of Korah 
and others against the government of Moses. There 
Moses avows that he has not done his works " of his 
own mind ; " that he was controlled from without, and 
adds, " If these men die the common death of all 
men, . . . then the Lord hath not sent me. But if 
the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her 
mouth and swallow them up, with all that appertain 
to them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye 
shall understand that these men have provoked the 
Lord. And it came to pass, as ho had made an end 
of speaking all these words, that the ground clave 
asunder that was under them, and the earth opened 
her mouth and swallowed them up, a.nd their houses, 
and all the men that pertained unto Korah, and all 
their goods ; they, and all that appertained to them, 
went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed 
upon them, and they perished from among the con- 
gregation." 

Such is the account. No remembrance is held of any 
description of works by spirits in recent times which 



MOSES. 

closely resemble the above. No opening of the earth 
by spirit power for the speeial purpose of dea ing 
rebels has been resorted to in these later da If the 

same God rules the nations now who then took charge 
of Moses, his methods of procedure with the disobedi- 
ent have been changed. If it is admissible to suppose 
that finite spirits, by ordinary methods, deriving pow- 
ers, as all do, from the Infinite, but using them in ac- 
cordance with their own judgments and dispositions, 
did then, and do now, act upon nations and individu- 
als, tho.-e spirits themselves may be progressive in 
knowledge and clemency, and we can understand, and 
ought to expect, that as the world advances out of 
barbarism, the processes of its control and punish- 
ment will soften from age to age ; and. therefore, if 
spirits have power to open the earth so that it shall 
swallow up men, the enlightenment of these modem 
times would'restrain them from so doing. 

tk And there came out a fire from the Lord, and 
consumed two hundred and fifty men that offered in- 
cense.' 1 These men were adherents of Korah, and 
suffered as rebels against Moses and his God. The 
remarks juat made concerning the opening of the 
earth, are applicable also to the calling of fire from out 
the Unseen. The incompatibility of many ancient 
methods of punishment with the more humane senti- 
ments of this day would restrain the spirit world from 
suffering their repetition now. 

Moses was a remarkable man. Some one, in a 
postscript to the book of Deut., xxxiv., which book 
Moses himself is reputed to have written, — some one 
there says, " Moses was an hundred and twenty years 
old when lie died ; his eye was not dim, nor his natu- 



60 MAKVEL WOEKEKS. 

ral force abated." He spent his youth in Egypt, a 
protege of the daughter of King Pharaoh, and pre- 
sumably with as good advantages for education as that 
country and age could furnish. Sympathy with his 
oppressed kindred aroused him to such unlawful vio- 
lence of action that he sought escape from punish- 
ment by flight into Midian, where he lived a shep- 
herd's life till near eighty years old, when he returned 
to Egpyt, became deliverer of his people, and for 
nearly forty years their prophet and ruler. His eulo- 
gist says, that " the children of Israel wept for Mo- 
ses thirty days ; and there arose not a prophet since in 
Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to 
face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent 
him to do in the land of Egypt, . . . and in all that 
mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses 
shoived in the sight of all Israel" 

The last phrase in that quotation is apparently very 
just in its presentation of the effects of the wonders 
wrought through this prophet. He was the instru- 
ment of terror. He was high-spirited, strong, ener- 
getic, and terrible in action, especially when inspired 
by The God who took special charge of the deliver- 
ance and discipline of the stiff-necked, superstitious, 
and rebellious Israelites, w r ho were ever prone to go 
after other gods than the one that controlled Moses. 
This was no sinecure office, and he discharged its du- 
ties in terrible majesty. 

A distinguishing feature of his mediumistic proper- 
ties was apprehended and indicated by the writer of 
the foregoing obituary. That feature was the ability 
which his properties furnished spirits to materialize 
or plate themselves when in his presence, so that the 



MOSES. 61 

Lord could see Moses face to face, i. e., could so far 
enrobe himself in visible matter, as both to behold 
the external Moses, and also, in turn, become visible 
by the eyes of Moses. Ex. xxxiii. 11, " And the 
Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speak- 
eth unto his friend. " There is need of caution against 
interpreting the above too literally, for in verse 20 
the language is, " Thou canst not see my face ; for 
there shall no man see me and live." What violence 
should we do the meaning here, were we to under- 
stand the Lord as saying, You cannot see my true 
spirit face, but only an externalized mask which I put 
on ? No one can see my spirit face till after his own 
death, till he becomes a spirit, because the essential 
relations of matter and spirit forbid. 

A strange course for the Infinite One to take is set 
forth in the following verses : The Lord said, " Be- 
hold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon 
a rock ; and it shall come to pass that while my glory 
passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, 
and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, 
and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt seo 
my back parts ; but my face shall not be seen." That 
statement is not very lucid, but no attempt will be 
made to explain and harmonize its parts. The quota- 
tion is a basis for the question, whether the transac- 
tion, as an whole, does not comport better with the 
supposition that some finite spirit was the immediate 
companion and interlocutor of Moses, than that the IN- 
FINITE AND PERFECT ONE was. Each reader 
will furnish his own answer. The immediate God of 
Moses, as he apprehended God, was, in fact, mediate 
between a higher one and Moses. This mediate God 



62 MARVEL WORKERS. 

selected locations, provided helps, and arranged con- 
ditions. He behaved like one conscious of limitations 
in power and wisdom. As such Ave must regard him 
— we must class him with John's angel and Daniel's 
man Gabriel. 

Moses, as a medium, as one susceptible to spirit in- 
v fluence and control, must be ranked high. But nei- 
ther he nor his special God wins from us much love. 
They do, however, individually and unitedly, com- 
mand our admiration for the power, energy, and ma- 
jesty with which they brought spirit force to bear 
upon man and matter, and with which they strove to 
teach, guide, and rule over a barbarous and fractious 
people. 



BALAAM. 

Turn to the twenty-second and two following chap- 
ters of Numbers, and you will find a particular and 
very suggestive account of some marvels wrought in 
the presence of Balaam, the son of Beor, of Mesopo- 
tamia. Lively interest attaches to this spirit medium, 
because of his nationality and of his being, at least by 
education and national ties, the worshiper of some other 
Deity than the God of Abraham. He was not of the 
children of Israel, but belonged to an heathen people. 
Still his renown as a diviner, or as one having infiu- 
ence with some god, was such, that when the near 
presence of the Israelites greatly alarmed the king 
of Moab, "he sent elders of Moab and Midian, with 
the rewards of divination in their hands, unto Balaam," 
and with instructions to say to him, " Come, curse 



BALAAM. 68 

me this people, . . . for I wot that he whom thou 
blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is 
cursed." 

When the invitation had been received, Balaam con- 
sulted " the Lord " as to whether he should accept it. 
And " God ' said, " Thou shalt not go ; thou shalt 
not curse the people.' 1 Balaam, accordingly, declined 
the king's request. 

King Balak, however, again sent " princes more and 
more honorable" than his first messengers, and with 
more tempting offers. Balaam replied to them, " If 
Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, 
I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to 
do less or more." Upon his second consultation of 
his heavenly guide, God said, " . . . go with them ; 
but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that 
shalt thou do." 

Therefore, having permission from the Lord his 
God, on the following morning Balaam " saddled his 
ass and went with the princes of Moab." Strange 
though it seems, some " god's anger was kindled be- 
cause he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in 
the way for an adversary against him." That surely 
was a singular God, who in the night gave him per- 
mission to go, and the next morning was angry be- 
cause he did go. Did not two different gods or spirits 
speak to him ? 

The narrative of the sequel is too familiar to need 
copying. The beast was ahead of his rider in seeing 
the opposing angel: the long-used, trustworthy ani- 
mal shied, " crushed Balaam's foot against the wall," 
and received a beating for her friskiness. Soon after 
she fell down under her rider, and because of that, 



64 MARVEL WORKERS. 

was beaten again. Then " the Lord opened the 
mouth of the ass," who pleaded her own former good 
behavior as reason why she should not be smitten 
with a staff. Our interpretation of this involves no 
supposition that the intellect of the beast constructed 
and comprehended the sentences ascribed to her, or 
that her organs of speech uttered them ; but only 
that some quasi spirit ventriloquism from the angel 
beguiled Balaam into a perception of speech as by his 
beast. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, 
and he, too, saw the opposing angel " standing in the 
way with his sword drawn." 

Modern instruction is teaching — as perhaps Paul 
did in his declaration that there is both a natural 
and a spiritual body — that animals, both human and 
brute, possess a double set of all the organs in their 
systems, — the outer set physical, the inner spirit, — 
and that any action which calls the spirit organs into 
sufficient play, renders spirit objects cognizable by the 
senses. Instances of perceptions of spirits by birds, 
dogs, cats,, and horses, and of the control of brutes by 
spirits, are extensively believed in, because of ob- 
served facts which logically lead to such belief. 

Assume that both Balaam and his beast were high- 
ly mediumistic, — i. e., were such that their inner or 
spirit senses were brought into action, — and then all 
their experiences are readily accounted for, being 
strictly natural, though rare in earth life. 

What may be said concerning the God of this hea- 
then diviner and prophet ? What said of a God who 
gave Balaam permission to gx> to Balak, and then was 
angry with him because he did go? The Gentile 
Balaam and Hebrew Moses, each designates his Deity 



BALAAM. 65 

by the same terms. Balaam uses God, The Lord, The 
Lord my God, The Almighty, and The Most High. 
This is a significant and instructive fact. The terms 
by which the Hebrews designated what they sup- 
posed to be their invisible tutor and object of worship 
are nearly or quite all applied by this heathen to his 
Lord or God. He calls his controller The Almighty, 
and The Most High. Using such appellations in com- 
mon as Moses and Balaam did, how can it well be 
supposed that there existed any great differences in 
their conceptions of the nature and character of their 
respective deities ? No doubt they actually supposed 
that they heard, obeyed, and worshiped different gods. 
Admit that each of them held communion with beings 
of the same rank as the one to whom John listened, 
and they may have held like conceptions of God, and 
at the same time have been servants of distinct and 
contentious gods. A medium under calm and easy 
influence, in modern times, generally is made to feel 
conscious that great truth and power both reside in 
the operating intelligence. Scarcely one — not a sin- 
gle remembered one — has ever hinted that his or 
her special controller was inferior to the highest and 
best spirits that ever control human organisms. But 
as the pen which we are using to-day may be held by 
a different hand to-morrow, and then be made to 
record things in direct conflict with what it is now 
registering, so many a medium, passing under new con- 
trol, may hear, sense, and utter, in all good faith and 
sincerity, things very inconsistent with what he says 
to-day. One God may have permitted Balaam to go 
to Balak, and another, which he supposed w r as the 
same, may have been angry with him for going. Such 
5 



66 MARVEL WORKERS. 

God-power as had long been put forth to control the 
gentile Balaam, might also be exercised over him by 
some other spirit agent. Therefore we may raise the 
question whether a spirit friendly to the Israelites did 
not suddenly come and get control of Balaam, and 
force him to act in waj^s opposed to those which his 
own familiar or ordinary controller had intended or 
would approve. Suppose that Balaam's usual con- 
troller did, in the night, give him permission to go to 
Balak, and that some other spirit, one friendly to Isra- 
el, put an adversary in Balaam's way in the morn- 
ing, — suppose that, and the character of Balaam's 
God, for consistency, is unimpeached. The whole Mo- 
saic narrative makes the God or Gods, then acting, so 
easily exasperated and so addicted to repentances or 
changes of purposes, that a considerable feebleness in 
Balaam's God is needful to hold him down on a par 
with other Gods of that age. What valid reason is 
there — judging them by their doings ■ — for supposing 
that any of those Gods were different in nature, how- 
ever unlike in character, from the angel whom John 
fell down to worship because he was godlike, and 
yet was, in fact, only a departed human being ? 

It would be ungenerous to close our consideration 
of this heathen diviner without noticing some special 
utterances by and through him. He says, quite dis- 
tinctly, that he was obliged to do and say just as much 
as, and could not possibly do more, than his God 
dictated, — says that Balak's houseful of silver and 
gold could not make him a free agent in prophecy. 
Thus he showed that he was subject to absolute con- 
trol. Under such control, no doubt, he was, when 
there came from his lips the following utterances, 



BALAAM. G7 

prompted, seemingly, by a vision viewing the events 
of the far-off future : — 

" He hath said who heard the words of God and 
knew the knowledge of the Most High, who, falling 
into a trance, but having his eyes open, saw the vis- 
ion of the Almighty,"— he hath said, " There shall 
come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out 
of Israel. ... Out of Jacob shall come He that shall 
have dominion." He who saw and said these things 
was Balaam, the son of Beor. Here a man speaks of 
himself as falling into a trance, yet having his eyes 
open, as knowing the knowledge of the Most High, 
and as uttering predictions which have been cherished 
in all subsequent ages by Jew and Christian, and re- 
garded as infallible inspirations, while they were but 
words from the lips of an heathen diviner. Truth, 
fidelity, and dignity pervade the sayings and doings 
of that diviner. 

Later Scriptures bring some accusations against 
him, but these seem to be the offspring of sectarian 
jealousies. His counsel, it is alleged, " caused the 
children of Israel to commit sin in the matter of 
Peor." What was that matter? He ordered the 
building of seven altars, and the offering of sacri- 
fices upon them by Balak and his people, and some 
of the Israelites joined them in their worship. But 
the fault — if there was any — attaches to the Israel- 
ites. He is charged with " loving the wages of un- 
righteousness." What unrighteousness there could 
be in his going to Balak for hire, when his Lord 
permitted him to go, it is difficult to discern. He cast 
" a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to 
eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit forni- 



68 MARVEL WORKERS. 

cation." — not such fornication as the word primarily 
suggests, but merely intercourse with, or worship of, 
other gods than the one to which they were wedded 
by education. If the character of Balaam as a proph- 
et and worshiper tempted some of the Israelites to 
feast upon his offerings, and unite with him in his 
worship, it was no crime on his part, but was either 
weakness or liberality on theirs. He stands well on 
the records when they are fairly read. His very ex- 
cellences may have charmed the Israelites, and have 
been the chief cause of warnings against listening to 
him and insinuations against his orthodoxy as a teach- 
er of spiritual things. 

Balaam, as presented to us in the Bible, was a proph- 
et of God quite as distinctly as Moses was, and was 
the prophet, too, of a God less harsh than the one 
whom Moses served. In personal placidity — yes, in 
meekness — Balaam takes precedence of the slayer of 
the Egyptian and the angry breaker of tables hallowed 
by the chirography of his own God; in care to get 
his Lord's permission in advance of action, he cannot 
well have been the less scrupulous of the two ; and in 
open and frank acknowledgment and avowal of per- 
sonal inability to do or say otherwise than just as 
much as, and no more than, his God prompted, he 
stands out very prominently. 

Of these two persons used by disembodied intelli- 
gences as organs cf communication earthward, Balaam 
was apparently the more susceptible of deep, uncon- 
scious entrancement, could become the more abso- 
lutely a mere instrument of others, and in that respect 
could be a reporter of spirit thought with less inter- 
mixture of mundane preconvictions and distortions 



/ 



JOSHUA. G9 

than Moses could. He seems to have been the supe- 
rior as a far-seeing prophet and as an enunciator of 
far-off coming events ; also, he, as far as he is exhib- 
ited, wears the aspect of the more amiable man. But 
Moses, as the executor of the commands of his God, 
and as a medium for manifesting striking physical 
power and wonders, and for instruction concerning 
things close at hand, to be attended to promptly, 
might have been the better. Both of them are 
marked personages among the mortals who have been 
used as instrumentalities of communication by more 
advanced intelligences. 



JOSHUA. 

" Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of 
wisdom ; for Moses had laid his hands upon him : and 
the children of Israel hearkened unto him." Deut. 
xxxiv. 9. This companion and aid of Moses amid 
many of the marvelous works wrought through and 
around the ark and upon the mount, became his suc- 
cessor as ruler in Israel, and next claims our attention. 
Moses predicted his coming and his offices, when he 
said to the children of Israel, "A prophet shall the 
Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me ; unto 
him ye shall hearken." 

In Joshua ii. it is recorded that he sent two spies 
to Jericho, who were protected by the harlot Rahab. 
The narrative there contains no distinct statement 
that she possessed peculiar powers of discernment; 
yet there was something about her which induced the 



70 MABVEL WOBKEBS. 

writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to include even 
one who bore the damaging name of harlot in a long 
list of worthies who acted under the guidance of a 
commendable faith, — most of whom, and probably all 
of them, were blessed with, and influenced by, pro- 
phetic gleams or convictions. In this prophetic dis- 
cernment apparently consisted, or on this was founded, 
that peculiar faith ascribed to them. It was seemingly 
a spiritualistic faith, consisting mainly of intuitions 
and impressions. Such a faith — that is, an intuitive 
hold of " the evidence of things not seen * /J outwardly 
or by the intellect — such a faith proved to be their 
very efficient motive power in performing their many 
wonderful works. That faith, when carefully ob- 
served, seems very like an intuitive faculty of pro- 
phetic perception, destitute of moral quality, abun- 
dant in some persons, and scant in others, like the 
faculties for music. Both the faculty itself and its 
outworkings seem to be sometimes, in the Scriptures, 
included under the word faith. 

Joshua, in his government of the Israelites, was 
guided and counseled by spiritual visitants, as seen in 
chapters v. and vi. u The Lord said unto him, I have 
given into thine hand Jericho. 9 ' And Joshua arranged 
to have the ark carried around that city daily for 
seven days, and on the seventh day seven times. 

Some way back in these pages was given a brief ac- 
count of the materials and the makers of the ark, and 
statement also of the probable charging of both the 
ark and the tables of stone in the ark with spirit em- 
anations. The reader will recall, without its repeti- 
tion here, with what special care the ark was kept 
from the spheres of all but the mediumistic priests, 



JOSHUA. 71 

and how its accompanying cloud of spirit essence 
rested on it each night during all the residence and 
many wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness. 
It was a battery always kept charged and in fit con- 
dition for spirits to use. This ark was carried thir- 
teen times around the city of Jericho. How far this 
disseminated and made available disintegrating mat- 
ter for instantaneous fracture of the whole encom- 
passing walls of the city, we cannot tell; but the 
presence of the ark was a very common condition of 
wonder workings by Israel's God through a long pe- 
riod after its construction. 

If the account of the standing still of the sun and 
moon, as described in chapter x., be regarded as any- 
thing more than a quotation from some song-book or 
poetical effusion, called the Book of Jasher, to which 
it is either credited in a blind way, or to which it 
refers as confirmatory of its own accuracy, one must 
be quite oblivious of the principles and forces of as- 
tronomy who regards the facts as having been any- 
thing more than either a production of odic light or a 
local refraction of solar and lunar rays which pro- 
longed fitting hours for carnage. A more satisfactory 
presumption than either of those is, that such vast 
extent of slaughter in a single day being far beyond 
belief, the narrator shielded his own reputation for 
truth by quoting and applying some poet's hyper- 
bolical conceptions clothed in lanoma^e which no one 
would deem descriptive of positive facts. 

Joshua stands well on the historic pages. He was 
obedient to the teachings of God, just and efficient in 
his rule, a successful general, a wise counselor, and a 
good man. He lived to a good old age, beloved and 



72 MARVEL WORKEKS. 

respected. But though his life was long and efficient, 
not many of his works have the characteristics of 
striking marvels ; and therefore our notice of him is 
brief. 



GIDEON. 

Glancing the eye over the earlier chapters in 
Judges, it falls upon several persons to whom the 
Lord, the word of the Lord, or some angel of the 
Lord appeared, gave instruction, and manifested signs. 
Among them is Gideon, who, on a certain night, had 
a fleece marvelously filled with dew, while the earth 
around it was dry ; the next night the dew moistened 
the earth, w T hile the fleece remained dry. When such 
marvels had given him satisfactory evidence that the 
Lord was calling upon him, and would help him to 
conquer the enemies of the children of Israel, he 
called around him thirty-two thousand men. The 
Lord soon gave permission for all the timid ones 
to return home ; consequently twenty-two thousand 
went back. The Lord still found the remaining ten 
thousand too many. Therefore he sent them down to 
the water to drink, and instructed Gideon to reject 
all that bowed down upon their knees to drink, and 
to accept those alone that lapped up the water, put- 
ting the hand to the mouth. Only three hundred 
thus lapped. The Lord said to Gideon, "By the 
three hundred men that lapped will I save you." By 
these, all of them using only trumpets, empty pitch- 
ers, and lamps in their pitchers, he did save the city, 



SAMSON. 73 

— yes, he, and not they. This account describes a 
process curiously differing from any which man would 
have devised, and raises the presumption that spirits 
influenced three hundred harmoniously mediumistic 
men to lap their drink, and thus designated a corps 
which would be an efficient spirit battery, b}^ the aid 
of which invisible powers could, and did, fight the 
battle. " 



SAMSON. 

Biblical leading has brought us in sight of a scrip- 
tural monstrosity. Some planner in the unseen world 
devised the conception and production of a future 
man, Judg. xiii., who should " begin to deliver Israel 
out of the hand of the Philistines," by whom they 
had been conquered and were enslaved. Unto the 
wife of Manoah came a "man of God," and notified 
her that she should become the mother of such a de- 
liverer. She said the countenance of her visitor was' 
"like the countenance of an angel of God, very terri- 
ble" Perhaps she meant, as moderns have generally 
presumed, terrible because of his brightness ; but pos- 
sibly he was terrible to her for a very different reason. 
One naturally fancies that the message she received 
would have been very welcome to a barren wife, and 
would have thrown charming looks over the messen- 
ger ; yet this one seemed to her very terrible. It is 
only matter of conjecture how far the aspect of the 
prophet so psychologized, and was intended to psy- 
chologize, Manoah's wife as to make her an abnormal- 



74 MARVEL WORKERS. 

ly fitted mother to bring forth a son who should 
become "very terrible" to the Philistines. The as- 
pect of the angel to the woman, and that of her son 
to many a Philistine, was the same — very terrible. 
The coming forth of one who grew up into a terrible 
man was announced by a befitting herald, if we read 
the record just as it stands. 

Samson's father, Manoah, conversed with this her- 
ald when he made a second call, but "knew not that 
he was an angel of the Lord." The narrative shows 
that for some time he regarded and treated the visitor 
as a common man. Afterward, however, when Ma- 
noah offered in sacrifice a meat offering, he beheld a 
striking manifestation of the super-mundane character 
of his guest; for this man "ascended in the flame of 
the altar" — went up and vanished from out their 
sight in the smoke and fire. Then Manoah said unto 
his wife, " We shall surely die, for we have seen God." 
But the wife felt in her bones, and said to her husband, 
that one w r ho had been so friendly as to tell them 
"such things" would not bring harm. They lived on, 
and therefore — according to biblical logic and com- 
mon sense too — had not seen the Infinite God, but 
only some spirit, some departed Israelite, who deeply 
sympathized with his surviving kindred in their servi- 
tude, and meditated retaliation upon their oppressors. 

" And the woman bare a son and called his name 
Samson, . . . and the spirit of the Lord began to move 
him at times." 

When the boy had grown up, he saw a Philistine 
woman whom he wished to marry. His parents pre- 
ferred that he should take a wife from among the 
daughters of Israel. But he said, Get the Philistine 



SAMSON. 75 

for me, "for she pleaseth me well." " But," — and 
mark this lammaofe, — " but his father and his mother 
knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought an 
occasion against the Philistines." This match, then, 
was devised by "the Lord" — was made in heaven, — 
and that, too, for the special purpose of procuring op- 
portunity for Samson to harass the oppressors of his 
people. 

Samson started on the way to his intended bride. 
While journeying towards her, " a young lion roared 
against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came might- 
ily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent 
a kid, and he had nothing in his hand." Seemingly a 
wonderful manifestation of strength and agility — a 
physical wonder. 

By plowing with Samson's heifer — that is, by fright- 
ening his young wife to coax from him a solution of 
his riddle — his Philistine companions during the mar- 
riage feast made Samson their debtor " for thirty 
sheets and thirty changes of garments." . . . "And 
the Spirit of the Lord ' (what quality of Lord ?) — 
"The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went 
down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and 
took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto 
them which expounded the riddle : and his anger was 
kindled." What Lord excited in him the spirit of 
anger, even murderous anger ? 

This wife was soon taken from him and given to 
another man. When Samson was informed of this by 
the woman's father, he took his revenge as related in 
the story of his three hundred foxes. If memory is 
not at fault, some philologists have determined that 
the original word may be translated small sheaves or 



76 MARVEL WORKERS. 

handfuls of unthreshed wheat, and not necessarily 
foxes. If it be so, we can cease our wonder at the 
marvelous agility which ran down and captured three 
hundred foxes, and, after catching, so handled them 
as to put a firebrand between the tails of each two. 
To pick up three hundred sheaves, and put the fox- 
tail ends of two together, set fire to, and scatter them 
through field and vineyard, is no very difficult matter. 
There is, however, a single phrase in the account 
which implies that Samson used something that was 
capable of voluntary motion. It is said that " he let 
them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and 
burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn, 
with the vineyards and olives." Did the account say 
only that he threw them into the corn, the sheaf trans- 
lation would bring all down to a very common and in- 
telligible process of revenge ; but if he literally " let 
them go" the whole transaction is essentially marvel- 
ous. Yet who knows the limitations of spirit power 
to fascinate, charm, attract, and control brute animals? 
Better stick to foxes. Very many things are possible 
with some occasional workers. 

The aggressive acts of Samson roused the Philis- 
tines to rise in arms against their subject Israelites, 
who, being alarmed, resolved to bind their brother 
Samson, and deliver him bound into the hands of 
their masters* Samson consented, and his brethren 
" bound him with two new cords." When they had 
taken him to the Philistines, " The Spirit of the Lord 
came mightily upon him, and the cords that were 
upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire^ 
and his bands loosed from off his hands." Immediate- 



SAMSON. 77 

ly, with the jaw-bone of an ass, he slew a thousand 
of his enemies. Becoming thirsty during the effort, 
" God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and 
there came water thereout ; and when he had drunk, 
his spirit came again, and he revived." Most wonder- 
ful manifestation of spirit power ! New cords crumble 
to pieces and fall from his arms ; single-handed, his 
only weapon a bone, he slays a thousand men. Out 
from the same bone flows water to quench his thirst, 
and revive him from the extreme prostration produced 
by the deep, exhausting draught of vitality that " the 
Spirit of the Lord " had made upon his physical organ- 
ism. Like, in all important respects, were the work- 
ings upon and through him to those which some mod- 
ern mediums experience in connection with heavy 
drafts upon them. Extreme prostration from spirit 
sappings, and prompt restoration from spirit influx, 
are often experienced, 

Samson's next affinitive relation was with a harlot, 
at Gaza. Being watched there, he arose at midnight, 
took upon his shoulders both the doors and posts of 
the gate of the city, and " carried them up to the top 
of an hill which is before Hebron." A third time he 
loved, and then also his mistress was a Philistine 
damsel — Delilah. By blandishments and artifice she 
labored assiduously to draw out from him information 
as to " wherein his great strength " resided. He 
played with her a while, and cheated her repeatedly. 
"He brake withes," that she bound upon him, " as a 
thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire." 
Again she bound him with new ropes, " and he brake 
them from off his arms like a thread." Once more 
she tried, and wove his locks of hair into the web, 



78 MARVEL WORKERS. 

(upon her loom ?) and fastened it with the pin, -" and 
he went away with the pin of the beam and with the 
web." At length " he told her all his heart, and said 
unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine 
head ; for I have been a Xazarite unto God from my 
mother's womb ; if I be shaven, ... I shall be like 
any other man." 

She caused his seven locks to be shaved off, and his 
strength did go from him. The Philistines took him, 
and put out his eyes. But subsequently, when his 
haii- had more or less grown again, he ** called upon 
the Lord, saying. Strengthen me, I pray thee, only this 
once ; ? then " taking hold of the two middle pillars 
upon which the house stood," and saying, u Let me 
die with the Philistines, he bowed himself with all 
his might, and the house fell upon the heads, upon 
all the people that were therein," and upon Samson 
himself, and killed them all ; so that he slew more at 
his death than in all his previous life. 

The foregoing is a very remarkable history. It re- 
lates to a child of prophecy by an angel of God, a 
child destined, even before conception, to be dedicated 
to God, and to be an extraordinary recipient of the 
" Spirit of the Lord; " also •• it was of the Lord" or 
bv the Lord's prompting, that he was moved to take 
a Philistine wife, and that, too, for the purpose of giv- 
ing him opportunity to harass and to slay. Mischief to 
the Philistines was his tnission. And obviously " the 
Spirit of " his " Lord " enabled and controlled him to 
do his barbarous work most efficientlv, and. in modern 
view, most nefariouslv. His office was to exercise 
rude, physical, murderous force. No revelation of 
truths and doctrines, no moral or religious instruc- 



SAMUEL. 79 

tions, came from his lips at any time ; no winning or 
commendable traits of character are anywhere ascribed 
to him. He consorted with harlots, and toward Philis- 
tines was murderous through life and at death. And 
yet the Bible says " the Spirit of the Lord " moved him 
to do all his mighty works. They were mighty only 
as manifestations of destructive physical power. 

What mind can fail to question whether the same 
immediate Lord inspired both Samson and also that 
beloved John who wrote three tender Epistles ? If 
not the selfsame, then follows the inference that dif- 
ferent inspired men of old were controlled by differ- 
ent powers, and also that u the Spirit," or " Angel 
from the Lord," sometimes meant no more than that 
the Spirit or the Angel came to man from beyond the 
world of outward sense. Samson furnishes striking 
indication that mediumistic susceptibilities need be 
very slightly, if at all, dependent upon either moral 
or religious sentiments or habits. Both his God and 
himself displayed barbarity which any Christian or 
any philanthropic heart to-day feels to be no attribute 
of its own God or its own religion. Even Bible hal- 
lowing fail to make either Samson or his God com- 
mendable. 



SAMUEL. 

Next we notice another and a verv different " child 
of prayer and of promise," whose history runs through 
many chapters in the first book of Samuel, and whose 
life bespeaks a man more accordant with our general 
conceptions of what a prophet or a servant of a good 



SO MARVEL WORKERS. 

God should be and do than did Samson. In answer 
to Hannah's earnest prayer, coupled with her promise 
that, if she should be the mother of a man child, she 
would give him unto the Lord all the days of his 
life, and that no razor should come upon his head, 
Samuel was born. This child was early carried to 
the temple, and placed in charge of Eli, the aged 
priest. 

Where the ark of God was, by the side of that spirit 
battery, Samuel one night " was laid down to sleep," 
and this boy heard his own name called. Assuming 
that the call came from Eli, he went to him, but 
found that the priest had not called. He returned to 
his couch, and soon heard his name called a second 
time : yet, upon going again to Eli, he found that Eli 
had made no call upon him. The account states that 
" Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the 
word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.' , This, 
therefore, may be regarded as the first exhibition of 
his mediumistic or prophetic perceptions. He heard 
the third call, went once more to Eli, and said to him, 
" Thou didst call me." " Then Eli perceived that the 
Lord had called the child," and sent Samuel back to 
bed, with instructions to say to the voice, " Speak, 
Lord." The Lord came, and the clairaudient boy lis- 
tened to enunciation of evil to Eli and his house. In 
the morning he dutifully, though reluctantly, told Eli 
all that he had heard ; and soon " all Israel knew that 
Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord." 
Therefore to hear a call from the Unseen then consti- 
tuted one a prophet. 

" The Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh 
by the word of the Lord" That expression, viz., " by 



SAMUEL. 81 

the word of the Lord," is of frequent occurrence, and 
merits repeated attention ; so, too, does the phrase 
u Spirit of the Lord ; ' each of which is used, with 
varying significance, perhaps, in different places, but 
often means no more than words, influences, or spirit, 
reaching man from out of spirit realms, having no ref- 
erence to the nature or character of the immediate 
author of those impartations from behind the vail of 
sense. "God sent an evil spirit." Judg. ix. 23. " The 
Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil 
spirit from the Lord troubled him." Such language 
shows that the coming from the Lord did not always 
import that the person or thing which came from him 
was of good character or quality, but only that it came 
from out the invisible abodes of unseen intelligences. 

" The word of the Lord was precious in those days : 
there was no open vision." 1 Sam. hi. 1. This im- 
plies that there had at times been " open vision," — 
clairvoyant seeing, — and also that such seers were 
not known among the children of Israel in Eli's time. 
Therefore the " Word of the Lord " — communication 
such as Samuel had an ear to hear — was precious. 

About this time the Philistines captured the ark of 
God, and " brought it into the house of Dagon, and 
set it by Dagon." 1 Sam. v. 1. And " when they 
arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen 
on his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord" 
The same happened the next night, with the added 
facts that " the head of Dagon and both the palms of 
his hands were cut off upon the threshold." No 
mention is made as to who thus maltreated Dagon. 
The house of Dagon, the idol god Dagon, and the ark 
were all in the keeping of Philistines, worshipers 

G 



82 MARVEL WORKERS. 

of Dagon, persons not likely to maltreat their own 
Deity. The sequel indicates their conviction that 
some occult, mischievous power accompanied the ark. 

Previous mention has been made as to who were 
employed to construct the ark, of the influences which 
might have charged both it and its contents with spirit 
instrumentalities, and thus have rendered spirit opera- 
tions upon matter in its vicinity quite feasible, even 
in the absence of living human batteries. The ark 
was an apparatus for spirit promulgation, communica- 
tion, and for the grappling of matter by spirits. 

When Samuel had become old, his sons were 
not deemed worthy to fill his place. The people 
asked for a king. It is in connection with this re- 
quest mainly that Samuel's seership, or prophetic 
powers, are exhibited and described. By the Lord's 
advice he consents, against his own wishes, to grant 
the people a king, and foretells what manner of king 
he will prove to be. In advance he describes Saul's 
course and character with considerable minuteness, 
and with sufficient accuracy to render it credible, 
that, to his vision, " coming events cast their shadows 
before." 

About the time of this demand for a king, some 
animals, owned by Kish, a Benjamite, were lost. 
He sent his son Saul, accompanied by a young man in 
his employ, to search for the strayed property. These 
two young men traveled far through various provinces 
without success. When they reached the land of 
Zuph, Saul became discouraged, and was worried by 
apprehension of his father's probable anxiety on ac- 
count of their prolonged absence. He said to the 
young man, " Let us return." 



SAMUEL. 83 

The narrative now has brought us to some very in- 
teresting points for special observation, because of 
their similarity to events now common. The young 
man replied to Saul, " There is in this city a man of 
God ; and he is an honorable man ; all that he saith 
cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither ; perad- 
venture he can show us our way that we should go." 

Nothing is known as to this young man's place of 
nativity or former residence ; but he speaks out confi- 
dently, like one well informed about his subject. He 
no doubt utters the common judgment in that region 
concerning this man of God, when he says that he is 
honorable, implying, perhaps, though not necessarily, 
that there were in those days some men cf God who 
were not thus. He indicates the reputed accuracy of 
prophetic perception and utterance pertaining to this 
particular man when saying, " all that he saith cometh 
surely to pass." There seems to be no misgiving, on 
his part, as to the perfect propriety of calling upon 
such a " man of God," for the purpose of consulting 
him as to the whereabouts of lost property. The 
young man's whole course and speech suggest the 
probability that it was customary to call upon this 
seer for information in like cases. Such prophesying 
seems not to have been incompatible with this proph- 
et's high character and position. 

Saul found a difficulty in his way which he had not 
the nreans to surmount. lie was out cf money ; had 
nothing to give the man in pay for the desired ser- 
vices. Here is seen the conviction of both Saul and 
his companion that the man of God, if consulted, 
would be entitled to pecuniary compensation. What 



84 MARVEL WORKERS. 

a resemblance between the customs of clairvoyants 
then and now ! 

The young companion of Saul has a little money 
with him, which, he says, " I will give to the man of 
God to tell us our way." The difficulty having been 
thus overcome, the young men approach the aged 
and venerable seer, or prophet, Samuel. Their call 
was foreknown ; for " the Lord had told Samuel, in 
his ear, a day before Saul came, saying, To-morrow, 
about this time, I will send thee a man out of the 
land of Benjamin. . . . When Samuel saw Saul, the 
Lord said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to 
thee of! . . . And Samuel," before Saul had stated 
the purpose of his visit, said, " As for the asses which 
were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them, 
for they are found." 

Among other prophecies by Samuel relating to Saul, 
and which were soon fulfilled, was this : " On thy re- 
turn from here, thou shalt meet a company of prophets, 
coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and 
a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them ; and 
they shall prophesy, and the Spirit of the Lord will 
come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, 
and shalt be turned into another man." 

The foregoing account clearly shows that the ven- 
erated Samuel, — the trusted revealer of God's com- 
mands, the judge and ruler of the people of Israel, — 
through a long and beneficent life found it perfectly 
consistent with his high offices and devout character 
to use his eminent power as a seer for the discovery 
of lost property, and to receive compensation for such 
service. Some of his labors and habits were like those 



SAUL. 85 

of modern mediums ; and he would to-day be nothing 
more nor less than a good medium and good man. 

Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and 
no doubt with much placidity, uprightness, and wis- 
dom. His hewing Agag to pieces was an act of bar- 
barism ; but we see a way to regard it as no volun- 
tary deed of his. Some spirit probably controlled 
him, and was author of that cruelty. Samuel himself 
generally was high above that controller in forbear- 
ance and equity, and deserved, as he has received, the 
respect and reverence of all after ages. 



SAUL. 



It was stated above that Saul would meet a company 
of prophets. How numerous a company is not stated. 
But since it was preceded by four musical instru- 
ments, one may presume that prophets of some quali- 
ty were plenty in those times. Agreeably with Sam- 
uel's prediction, Saul met that company, and the 
spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied 
among them. This exhibition was obviously to the 
astonishment of his acquaintances, for they exclaimed, 
What ! Is Saul also among the prophets ? 

Whatever may have been the cause of their aston- 
ishment, this unlooked-for prophet was never orna- 
mental to the prophetic office. We do not notice 
that he was at any time a mouth-piece for the utter- 
ance of anv communication from the unseen world ; 
he was not much of a prophet in the now accepted 
use of that word, i. e., a foreteller of events, but 
5 



86 MARVEL WORKERS. 

apparently was only a person who could be shaken 
and thrown about, and made partially a tool in spirit 
hands. His chief manifestation of prophecy, so far as 
the record teaches, 1 Sam. xix. 24, was, that " he 
stripped off his clothes before Samuel, and lay down 
naked all that day and all that night." His medium- 
istic properties were slight, just enough to let him 
be made something different from his proper self, and 
that something generally of no desirable quality. It 
was such, that when "the spirit of the Lord de- 
parted from him, an evil spirit from the Lord troubled 
him." Spirits of opposite characters could alternate 
in influencing him, and he lacked power to shut either 
class out at his own option. Such an one would al- 
most necessarily be subject to fitful and varying 
moods, and be made to pursue conflicting courses of 
action. An individual subject to spirit control as 
much as, and yet no more than, he seems to have been, 
would almost necessarily manifest sudden and extreme 
inconsistencies of opinions, temper, and action. 

The narrative gives little evidence that Saul, 
when alone, was much susceptible to spirit influence ; 
though, like many in our d&y, he could be influenced 
when in company with others more susceptible. 
Statement has already been made of his prophesying 
when he met a company of prophets. There is anoth- 
er account, 1 Sam. xix., stating that Saul sent out 
messengers, upon whom, when near the prophets, the 
spirit of God came, and they prophesied ; also a sec- 
ond and a third set were sent, who were all, when near 
the prophets, affected in the same way. At last Saul 
went himself, and, upon his approach to the prophet 
band, the spirit of God was upon him also, and he 



SAUL. 87 

went on and prophesied, and he stripped off his clothes 
also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, 
and lay down naked all that da} r and all that night. 
Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the proph- 
ets ? It seems from this that there is ancient pre- 
cedent for unseemly behavior when under spirit in- 
fluence. 

We notice no mention that the good Samuel, who 
himself communed familiarly with some spirit, or that 
any other of the judges, through the four hundred 
years from Moses to Samuel, ever persecuted wizards, 
&c. But Saul, after the death of Samuel, " had put 
away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards." 
A very old, slumbering law permitted this ; and yet 
Saul's will was generally his law. Probably it was 
in this case. 

Afterward, 44 when Saul inquired of the Lord, the 
Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by 
Urim, nor by prophets ; ' and thus, seemingly, the 
Lord by silence drove him to " seek for a woman 
that hath a familiar spirit, that he may go to her and 
inquire of her." Yes, in his hour of deep need and 
distress, his acts impeached his own wisdom and be- 
neficence in his suppression or banishment of those that 
had familiar spirits. He himself goes to the woman 
of Endor — goes to — not the witch, but the woman 
of Endor. The Bible does not call her a witch, but 
" a woman that hath a familiar spirit." Its account 
of her neither expresses nor intimates anything against 
her occupation or character ; but, on the other hand, 
does show her to have been kindly sympathetic and 
hospitable toward the prostrate, distressed, and faint- 
ing Saul. 



88 MAEVEL WOEKEES. 



WOMAN OF ENDOR. 

That biblical account which so very distinctly bears 
on its face the appearance, that one departed human 
spirit did reappear on earth, invites to very careful 
examination. All the essential parts of it are em- 
braced in six or seven verses, commencing at 1 Sam. 
xxviii. 8, as follows : — 

" And Saul disguised himself, and put on othei 
raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and 
they came to the woman by night : and he said, I pray 
thee divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring 
me him up whom I shall name unto thee. And the 
woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what 
Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have 
familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land : 
wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to 
cause me to die ? And Saul sware to her by the 
Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth there shall no pun- 
ishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the 
woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee ? And he 
said, Bring Samuel. And when the woman saw Sam- 
uel, she cried with a loud voice : and the woman spake 
to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me ? for 
thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not 
afraid, for what sawest thou ? And the woman said 
unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. 
And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she 
said, An old man cometh up ; and he is covered with 
a mantle. And Saul perceived that it w r as Samuel, 
and he stooped with his face to the ground, and 



WOMAN OF ENDOR. 89 

bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast 
thou disquieted me to bring me up ? " 

It is obvious from the above account, that Saul had, 
prior to going to this woman, full belief, that by the 
aid of the familiar spirit, some persons were able to 
bring up particular deceased individuals ; for his first 
words to the woman were, " Divine unto me by the 
familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall 
name unto thee." Such a belief as this must have 
been preceded by experiences and observations some- 
where, by somebody, which originated it. Presumably 
such was a common belief of his land and of his time. 
The notion that death is a bourn from beyond which 
no traveler returns, was generated by poetic concep- 
tion amid the boasted enlightenment of modern days. 
Those to whom the Word of the Lord was a frequent 
visitant in olden times thought differently. And well 
they might, if experiences like Saul's were common. 
Scarcely had he asked for Samuel before the prophet 
presented himself ; and, with the spiritual influx of 
light which attended his approach, the woman saw 
that her earthly visitant was that very Saul who had 
doomed her and others of like powers to death. 

Well might she cry with a loud voice, and say, 
Why hast thou deceived me ? for thou art Saul. The 
exercise of her peculiar gifts in the presence of, and 
for, the very man from whom and whose officers she 
must keep secreted or die, was enough to startle her 
to the innermost depths of her being. Those who 
have been extensively observant of the conditions 
which favor, and those which mar, spirit manifesta- 
tions, can only wonder that the familiar or any other 



90 MABVEL WOKKEKS. 

spirit could maintain control over, and sustain her. 
Yet some one did both. 

When Saul asked her whom she saw, she said gods 
(spirits ?) ; and he said, What form is he of ? There 
is grammatical confusion here. Still it is clearly in- 
dicated by his question, that Saul found in her state- 
ment what satisfied him that some individual spirit 
was visible to her. What form is he of? implies that 
much. She then describes him as " an old man . . . 
covered with a mantle." That is all. That little — 
that very little — satisfied Saul, and continues to satis- 
fy the Christian world, that Samuel actually appeared 
there and then. There is no indication that Saul saw 
him, or that his two attendants saw him, or that the 
woman herself saw him, except dairy oyantly. The 
few words, applicable to almost any old man, uttered 
by a traduced clairvoyant, basted with all the infamy 
involved in the word witch, is all the evidence there 
is in the case. " An old man covered with a mantle," 
is the entire description. How admirably has that 
little satisfied ages and nations of the identity of Sam- 
uel ! Just look at, and wonder at, the amplification 
and weight which Bible covers have given to evidence 
and testimony! Here the bare word of a woman 
whom Christian commentators have branded as witch 
and conjurer, and accused of practicing charms and 
imposture, — thebare word of such an one, — is deemed 
conclusive proof that Samuel's very self appeared and 
spoke to Saul. O, Credulity ! Credulity ! ! In these 
our days, any one, tyro or veteran at seances, would 
be most essentially jeered and laughed at, if, solely 
because a clairvoyant told him, "I see an old man Avith 
a cloak and hat on," he should " perceive " at once 



WOMAN OF ENDOR. 91 

that it was his father or his uncle Josh, as Saul did 
that the old man with a mantle on was Samuel. 
More and better evidence of spirit return is both re- 
quired and obtained in these days. The common and 
easy method by which similar cases occurring now are 
disposed of, is to say that the woman lied. Why not 
do the same by the woman of Endor ? Why not ? 
Because her case is found in the Bible. That is the 
whole reason why such meagerness of evidence is so 
conclusive. Christian commentators, you had better 
say that the woman lied, and thus save yourselves the 
unnecessary conclusion that Samuel was then brought 
up "by the immediate agency of the Almighty Spirit." 
Such an unphilosophical conclusion has been avowed 
by some who wish to make this Endor case so unlike 
any modern ones that this cannot be quotable as a 
precedent. In such an effort they sacrifice both com- 
mon sense and sound philosophy. They write as 
though they felt it necessary to admit the fact of 
Samuel's return, and, ignoring the powers of spirits, 
ascribe to the Infinite One what finites performed. 
The return is credible and finite, though spiritual 
agents were competent to its production. 

Samuel is made to say to Saul, Why hast thou dis- 
quieted me to bring me up ? This expression is well 
suited to this particular case. Saul's course of gov- 
ernment and his personal presence had often been un- 
pleasant to Samuel during his sojourn on earth. Much 
observation teaches that none but malicious or revenge- 
ful spirits like to come within the sphere or influence 
of those who are antagonistic in character and pur- 
poses to themselves. Most of the departed gladly 
come to those whom they love. But to be called for 



92 MARVEL WORKERS. 

by, and to come in contact with, such a man as Saul, 
would, by all indicated laws of spiritual action, dis- 
quiet such an one as Samuel, not only for the time 
being, but after his return to his spirit abode. We 
see no philosophical or even presumptive grounds for 
supposing that a call upon spirits by their loving 
friends is generally other than pleasing to them, or 
that their return is not conducive to their enjoyment, 
happiness, and higher ascension in the spiritual spheres. 
They are very nearly unanimous in stating that such 
are the effects of a return. 

Though the evidence that Samuel actually returned 
so as to be seen, heard, and felt by the inner senses 
of the woman of Endor, rests on her testimony alone ; 
the fact is credible, and is credited because it is in 
harmony with count] ess other similar returns of spir- 
its under the legitimate operation of natural though 
recondite forces and laws. The case is a good one of 
its class ; more extraordinary ones, however, are oc- 
curring now, where spirits so materialize themselves as 
to become visible to the external eyes of many simul- 
taneous beholders. We may certainly class the woman 
of Endor among good mediums, and probably, too, 
among good women — may hold a misnamed witch in 
high esteem, and do tardy justice to her memory. 



DAVID. 



David, limitedly contemporary with Samuel, and 
more extensively with Saul, deserves some notice. 
The prophet Samuel, by direction of the Lord, an- 



DAVID. 93 

ointecl him, and " the Spirit of the Lord came upon 
David from that day forward.'' 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 
How far that special spirit prompted and controlled 
him in his encounter with, and triumph over, the 
Philistine champion, Goliath, each reader may infer 
from the disparity of the two in natural prowess and 
in weapons. When Saul sought " a cunning player 
on an harp," he was informed that this son of Jesse 
u is cunning in playing," and that "the Lord is with 
him. . . . And it came to pass when the evil spirit 
from G-od was upon Saul, that David took an harp, 
and played with his hand ; so Saul was refreshed, and 
was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." 
Exorcising and restoring influences thus appear to 
have attended his musical performances ; but whether 
those influences were normally his, or were partially 
inflowed and exflowed through him by spirits, is mat- 
ter for conjecture. 

Perhaps the most fitting adjective for David as a 
medium is inspirational. The Spirit of the Lord may 
have had its most common manifestation through him 
in music and poetry. In those forms its workings are 
less striking to the outward senses, and yet not neces- 
sarily less instructive, than are its manifestations of 
power over matter, disea.se, and demons. 

In connection with David there is striking mani- 
festation of diversity of biblical phraseology for ex- 
pressing the same fact. The Lord (in anger) moved 
David to number the people. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. When 
the same thing is noticed in 1 Chron. xxi. 1, the lan- 
guage is, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and 
provoked David to number Israel." The Lord in 
anger and Satan in his appropriate mood were there- 



94 MARVEL WORKERS. 

fore, in those times, one and the same being. The 
evil was only the good in bad humor. This harmo- 
nizes with the perceptions of those who are teaching 
that all evil is only lesser good. 

David was not generally his own prophet. Nathan 
was employed by the Lord to say of David, " He shall 
build an house unto my name." 2 Sam. vii. 13. 
Also he was employed to enunciate to David the para- 
ble of the ewe lamb, and make that king pronounce 
sentence against himself. The prophet Gad also re- 
proved him. 

David was obviously less of a prophet in the mod- 
ern acceptation of that term than of an inspirational 
musician and poet. As the latter, his strains are some- 
times gentle and devout, at others lofty and majestic, 
and in yet others terrific and almost satanic in denun- 
ciation of enemies, if he was author of each variety 
contained in the book of Psalms. Critics — and no 
doubt on sufficient grounds — find a different author- 
ship of many of them. Under that shelter David pos- 
sibly may be saved from the action of the strong 
disapprobation which the spirit of some things in the 
Psalms calls up in every generous reader. 

Though called " a man after God's own heart," if 
he be judged by the accepted standards of to-day, 
some of his actions cannot be approved. His exten- 
sive use of concubines was not a crime, and seemingly 
not a blemish, under the theocratic government which 
the Lord chose and appointed him to administer. But 
his unlawful connection with the wife of Uriah, his 
deliberate and successful exposure of her husband to 
death in battle, and his subsequent marriage of the 
unfaithful woman, are most damaging to character, 



SOLOMON. 95 

when judged by the standards of equity, of noble- 
ness, or of morality in almost any age or nation. His 
behavior and unseemly exposure of his person when 
dancing before the ark, he seems to have regarded as 
produced by an influence from the Lord (spirits?), 
and, therefore, not censurable. But that can not 
excuse his turning afterward to other women, and 
neglecting his wife Michal because she deemed his 
conduct shameful. 2 Sam. vi. 

These cases clearly show that that spirit of the 
Lord which came upon David and hosts of his con- 
temporaries was not always an abiding and sufficient 
help for guidance and preservation in morals and in 
that pure religion which requires one to do justly and 
to keep unspotted from the world. In his youth, and 
mostly too in his maturer years, he manifested loving 
and noble traits. His frequent repentances, his for- 
bearances toward the envious and malignant Saul, 
and his deep, tender, and abiding affection for Jona- 
than, throw charms about him which are fruitful of 
very pleasant contemplations. 



SOLOMON. 

Solomon was son and successor of David on the 
throne of Israel. Very many of his proverbs are 
pointed, good, and applicable in any age. Perhaps 
his best claim for great wisdom rests upon the choice 
of proffered gifts which he made in his dream. 
1 Kings iii. 5. " In Gibeon the Lord appeared to 
Solomon in a dream by night : and God said, Ask 
what I shall give thee." And Solomon replied, " Give 



96 MARVEL WORKERS. 

me an understanding heart to judge thy people, that 
I may discern between good and bad." . . . And God 
responded, u I have given thee a wise and under- 
standing heart ; . . . and I have also given thee that 
which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor. . . . 
And Solomon awoke ; and behold, it was a dream." 
Without intending any disparagement to Solomon's 
wisdom or genuine philanthropy in his normal condi- 
tion, the fact may be specially noted that he made his 
choice of gifts from God in a dream. " In Scripture, 
dreams were sometimes impressions on the minds of 
sleeping persons, made by supernal agency ; God came 
to Abimelech in a dream ; Joseph was warned by God 
in a dream" — Webster. The dream narrated suc- 
cinctly above probably may with propriety be classed 
with those designated in the dictionary, and be made 
to indicate the susceptibility of Solomon to spirit im- 
pression, and therefore the propriety of naming him 
in this partial list of Bible mediums. He followed 
the custom of his times and his kingly office in refer- 
ence to women, and yet with much persistency mani- 
fested the traits of an amiable and good man and of a 
wise and beneficent magistrate. 



ELIJAH. 

Elijah looms up prominently among the great 
wonder workers of old. In obedience to the Lord, 
1 Kings xvii., he hid himself, u and the ravens brought 
him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and 
flesh in the evening." Famine was upon the land. 



ELIJAH. 97 

From his hiding-place he went to Zarephath, where 
he asked a widow woman for water to drink and a 
morsel of bread. She had only a handful of meal in 
the barrel and a little oil, which she was about to pre- 
pare as a last meal for herself and son, and then wait 
the coming of death by starvation. However, though 
her stock of provisions was thus low, Elijah asked her 
to make for him a little cake first, but added that the 
Lord God saith, " The barrel of meal shall not waste, 
neither shall the cruse of oil fail." She complied 
with his request, " and she, and he, and her house did 
eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, 
neither did the cruse of oil* fail." 

Soon the woman's son, the boy of the house, "fell 
sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no 
breath left in him." Elijah "took him and carried 
him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him upon 
his own bed. . . . Then he stretched himself upon the 
child three times, . . . and cried to the Lord. . . . And 
the Lord heard the voice of Elijah ; and the soul of 
the child came into him again, and he revived." 

Three marvels, quite distinct from each other both 
in kind and in the processes and seeming agencies of 
their accomplishment, are presented in the account 
just exhibited. 

First. The bringing of bread and flesh to an hun- 
gry man by ravens. Some remarks which were made 
when Balaam's beast was under consideration are 
equally applicable here. The position then taken, 
that some animals can be controlled by spirits, indi- 
cates the cause to which we ascribe that unusual 
action on the part of birds. Whence they obtained 
that food, and whether the bread was of human man- 



98 MAEVEL WOEKEES. 

ufacture, and the flesh from animals slaughtered by 
man, is not made known. When the apparent scar- 
city of food in that region at the time, and the mode 
by which it was furnished in the case next to be dis- 
cussed, are considered in connection, there may ap- 
pear grounds for regarding an inferential wonder as 
still more marvelous than the one explicitly stated. 
The food may have been manufactured out of invisible 
elements. 

Second. Though the poor woman continued to 
take meal out of the barrel which originally contained 
only an handful, and oil out of the cruse which had 
only a little in it, and thence to feed herself, Elijah, 
and her family day after day, yet the quantity in 
neither the barrel nor the cruse was expended. 

We have for years been, and are still being, taught 
through channels like those in which knowledge 
flowed to ancient prophets, that the elements of all 
the material substances about us are alwaj^s extant 
in earth's atmosphere ; and also that w r e are sur- 
rounded by invisible chemists, w^ho can occasionally, 
though only rarely, command the conditions and forces 
needful to produce very many things which man needs, 
and deposit their products limitedly where they please. 
That single statement involves the explanation how, 
possibly by the use of elements from Elijah, combined 
with others from unseen almoners, the stock of pro- 
visions in the woman's larder was kept up, and how 
the ravens were supplied with the gifts which they 
bore to the prophet. 

Third. The woman's son fell sick, — so sick that 
" there was no breath left in him." Elijah, by pro- 
cesses seemingly magnetic, — that is, by throwing his 



ELIJAH. 99 

body upon the child's body, and thus bringing many 
parts of his system in contact with the cataleptic 
child, — caused the child's "soul to come into him 
again." In this act a healing agent surely, and prob- 
ably a healing medium, is revealed. Spirit aid may 
have magnified the prophet's healing powers. 

After the above occurrence, Elijah is described as 
putting his peculiar occult capabilities in competition 
with those possessed by the prophets of Baal, four 
hundred and fifty in number. Their united call upon 
their god failed to elicit from an unseen source fire to 
consume the sacrifice which they had placed upon 
their altar. They strove and prayed all through the 
morning without success. At noon, " Elijah mocked 
them, and said, Cry aloud : for he is a god : either he 
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or 
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awakened." 
Neither in the afternoon did they succeed. 

At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah extem- 
porized an altar, put wood and also a bullock in 
pieces upon the altar, and then had the whole thor- 
oughly drenched in water. Instantly at his call, " the 
fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, 
and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked 
up the water that was in the trench." This was an 
emphatic triumph, indicative of mighty powers, which, 
however, were seemingly moved by a most vindictive 
spirit ; for — it must be told in sadness — Elijah 
forthwith had all those Baal prophets taken and 
slain, four hundred and fifty of them. 

The facts now given indicate that Elijah was a very 
extraordinary joint fountain and reservoir of the pe- 
culiar properties which are very help fid to spirits in 



100 MARVEL WORKERS. 

processes for collecting from out of our invisible sur- 
roundings, and for handling, if not making, such things 
as meat, bread, oil, fire, and the like. We recall no 
other equal of his in such operations as mysterious 
food-making, or food procuring, till we pass down to 
one in whose presence loaves and fishes were most 
marvelously multiplied. The results in each case may 
be considered indicative of great force in the atten- 
dant intelligences that controlled the physical sys- 
tem, and availed themselves of the constituent ele- 
ments and characteristic emanations of Elijah or of 
Jesus. 

Afterward Elijah went a day's journey into the 
wilderness. As he lay and slept under a juniper tree, 
an angel touched him ; he looked, and behold, there 
was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water 
at his head, and he did eat and drink, and laid him 
down again. A second time the angel touched him, 
and said, Eat, because the journe} 7 is too great for' thee. 
He did eat, and "went, in the strength of that meaty 
forty days and forty nights."" 

Whether he himself either kindled the fire or pos- 
sessed a cruse, is not told. But it is obvious that the 
cake and the water took him by surprise. Whence 
came they ? Probably from whence came the meal, 
oil, and fire. In this case, the kneading and baking 
of the cake may have been performed by invisible 
cooks. Emanations from such kneaders may have 
been infused into the food which made it continue to 
give him nourishment for forty days and forty nights, 
or which may have made his system peculiarly sus- 
ceptible of receiving nutriment by absorption of 
special food from out the atmosphere. 



ELIJAH* 101 

The biblical accounts of the production of manna 
and quails in the wilderness, and also of water from 
the solid rock, there, where the properties of the ark 
of the covenant, of the wonder-working rod, and of 
the mediumistic Moses and Aaron were available — 
the account that water marvelously* came out from 
the jaw-bone which was permeated with emanations 
from Samson, through whom "the Spirit of the Lord ,: 
wrought — the account just given of the wonderful 
replenishing of the flour barrel and oil cruse of the 
widow of Zarepath, when the mediumistic Elijah was 
her guest — the accounts that loaves and fishes were 
educed from the house of mystery at a later day, in 
the near vicinity of Him who was eminently endowed 
with power from on high,— these accounts, with others 
which might be given, authorize the presumption that 
invisible, intelligent agents were formerly enabled to 
produce palpable foods and drinks for man by occult 
processes, when these agents could command free use 
of such odylic and spiritual properties as constitute 
one form of high mediumship ; because such intelli- 
gences do mysteriously produce flowers, fruits, cake, 
and fluids, near some mediums at the present day. 

Elijah goes and casts his mantle upon Elisha, 1 
Kings xix. 19. That mantle was doubtless highly 
charged with peculiar magnetic elements from Elijah, 
and therefore would limitedly put such elements in 
close proximity to its future wearer. Like a servant 
or son, this young prophet afterward accompanied 
and ministered unto the elder. Elijah already, when 
under the juniper tree, had " requested for himself 
that he might die, for he there said, Now, O Lord, 
take away my life." 

Elijah, as stated 2 Kings i. 8, " was an hairy man, 



102 MABVEL WOEKEES. 

and girt with a leathern girdle." By this brief de- 
scription the king of Samaria recognized him. Being 
hostile to Elijah, he sent fifty men to take him. Fire 
from the Lord consumed these men, as it also did 
another fifty sent out for the same purpose. To com- 
ment upon the fact that Elijah was an hairy man, 
seems to be of little consequence ; but since Samson's 
strength lay in his hair, and Elijah, as well as Samson, 
was one through whom came uncommon manifesta- 
tions of physical force, it may not be amiss to mention 
the two in connection. 

When the hour for Elijah's departure approached, 
he and Elisha went to Jericho. It is stated that pro- 
phetic perception by other prophets in that city had 
obtained knowledge of Elijah's speedy liberation, for 
the sons of the prophets at Jericho said to Elisha, 
" Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy 
master from thy head this day ? He answered, Yea, 
I know it." The two prophets approached the river 
Jordan, when Elijah wrapped his mantle together and 
smote the waters of the Jordan, and they were divided 
hither and thither, so that they two — Elijah and 
Elisha — " went over on dry ground." 

" And it came to pass when they were gone over, 
Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, 
before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, 
Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. . . . 
And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, be- 
hold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, 
and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a 
whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, . . . and 
he saw Elijah no more. Afterward he took up the 
mantle of Elijah, went back," stood by the Jordan, 



ELIJAH. 103 

and with the mantle smote the waters, which parted 
as before, and he went over. The sons of the proph- 
ets who had been looking at this scene from Jeri- 
cho, said, " The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Eli- 
sha." Fifty men searched three days for the body of 
Elijah, but failed to find it. 

The same powers which had attended upon Elijah 
in other cases may well be deemed competent, un- 
der fitting conditions, to furnish the prophets a dry 
path on the bed of the Jordan. Also, they could fur- 
nish the horses and chariots of fire, separate the two 
men, form a whirlwind which should infold Elijah 
alone, and by means of that carry his mortal form be- 
yond the reach of human vision. Also they by their 
chemistry could disintegrate the gross body at once 
into particles less palpable than the atmosphere, and 
therefore buoyant in its strata. In its own medium- 
istic composition there existed some helpful solvents 
for its own instantaneous evaporation under the ac- 
tion of spirit fires. 

Elijah the Tishbite, of Gilead, is undescribed as 
to parentage, domestic relations, or position in socie- 
ty. Possibly he is named in Ezra, x. 21 and 81, as a 
son of Harim, and classed among those sons of the 
priests who had taken strange wives and then put 
them away. He comes before us abruptly — first ap- 
pears unannounced, as a prophet speaking to Ahab. 
He seems to have lived a solitary life, devoted mostly 
to denunciation of and opposition to that idolatrous 
king, and his satanic wife Jezebel. It was in further- 
ance of this prominent object that most of the mar- 
vels of his life were wrought. His personal charac- 
ter and dispositions are not distinctly set forth. No 



104 MARVEL WORKERS. 

apparent fact opposes our freedom to conceive of him 
as a good and estimable man, if we can let either the 
barbarity of his times, or his passivity in the hands 
of his Lord, exempt him from responsibility in the 
slaughter of the four hundred and fifty priests of 
Baal over whom he had triumphed. Such wholesale, 
deliberate murder is not accordant with modern no- 
tions of excellency in its perpetrators, whether the 
essential perpetrators have abodes on earth or in 
realms unseen. A burning hostility to Baal and his 
worshipers seems to have been a frequent motive in 
Elijah, often belching out in flaming denunciations 
against the idolatrous king and queen. Whether this 
hostility was volunteer from his own innate proper- 
ties, and therefore his common mood, or whether it 
was mainly an occasional impartation to him from 
without, the records fail to indicate. 



ELISHA. 



Iisr close connection with, and as successor to Eli- 
jah, comes Elisha, son of Shaphat. When first seen 
he is plowing in the field. There Elijah cast his man- 
tle upon him. Elisha was willing to leave his home 
and follow the prophet, but wished first to go and 
kiss his father and mother. He makes no mention of 
wife or children, and therefore probably had none. 
His independent work as a prophet, according to the 
record, 2 Kings ii. 19, commenced at Jericho soon 
after Elijah's disappearance. " The men of that city 
said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation 



ELISHA. 105 

of the city is pleasant, as my lord seeth ; but the 
water is naught " (bad?), " and the ground barren." 
He then said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt 
therein. They brought it, and he went forth unto 
the spring of the waters, and east the salt in there, 
and said, " Thus saith the Lord : I have healed these 
waters ; there shall not be from thence any more death 
or barren land." 

It should be noticed that this account opens with 
the phrase "men of the city." Yet, as soon as there 
is speech, the language is, " I pray thee," and " My 
lord," indicating that it may have been only one man 
who complained of bad water and consequent death 
and sterility. The city was on the banks of the river 
Jordan, which probably furnished good water in 
abundance for the mass of the inhabitants of Jericho. 
That Elisha went far and wide to the spring or springs 
of any considerable river, seems improbable. Possi- 
bly reference was had to only one limited spring, 
whose waters flowed over and poisoned the grounds 
of a limited spot. Conjectures like this are suggested, 
and only suggested, by the narrative. If they are in 
accordance with the facts, a conjecture arises whether 
there was anything more than a recent detrimental 
change in the waters of the spring, occasioned by 
some cause both then and now concealed from exter- 
nal observation and the reasoning faculties, and which 
yet may have been cognizable by clairvoyance and 
intuition. Perhaps the controllers of Elisha saw the 
cause, and also saw that in salt there were properties 
which they could so combine with special properties 
in Elisha, as to compound a neutralizer of the poison 
in the water. However limited or however large the 



106 MARVEL WORKERS. 

quantity of water was, the change in it may have 
been in subserviency to fixed laws of spirit chemistry, 
and within the power of finite chemists. Confessed- 
ly, the account is obscure. It is difficult to determine 
how great Elisha's seeming work was ; and amid the 
uncertainty of how much he did that needs explana- 
tion, no more attention will be given to this case. 

" And he went up from thence, . . . and as he was 
going up, . . . there came forth little children out of 
the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, "Go 
up, thou bald head ; go up, thou bald head, And he 
turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them 
in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two 
she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two 
children of them." The insolence of a crowd of lit- 
tle children, who are usually thoughtless, and prone 
to mirth and frolic, seems less censurable than a curse 
upon them for their jeerings, coming out of the mouth 
of a prophet of a good Lord, uttered, too, in the name 
of that Lord. The account may, and seemingly does, 
imply that in consequence of either the children's 
mockery, or of the prophet's curse, or both, two bears 
were inspired to come from out the woods, and harm, 
if not destroy, forty and two of the band. The pow- 
er of spirit agents to act thus is readily conceded ; 
but the disposition to do so is very damaging to their 
character for equity and benevolence. Little children, 
in mass, seem hardly competent to such rudeness and 
incivility as could justify their being mangled by the 
paws and teeth of savage beasts. Barbarity only could 
have hounded on such beasts to injure such offenders. 

In Shunem, 2 Kings iv. 8, a certain woman, in con- 



ELISHA. 10GJ 

cert with her husband, built a prophet's little cham- 
ber for Elisha — put into it a bed, table, stool, and 
candlestick, and set it apart for his special use, as he 
was often journeying to and fro past their house. Sub- 
sequently this woman, long childless, bore a son. The 
boy fell sick and died. The mother placed him "on 
the bed of the man of God." Elisha was sent for 
and came. Going into the chamber, he shut the door 
upon himself and the child, and prayed unto the Lord. 
Then he laid himself upon the child, " put his mouth 
upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands 
upon his hands." He stretched himself upon the 
child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then 
he walked in the house to and fro a while, and after- 
ward again stretched himself upon the child, who 
" sneezed seven times, and opened his eyes." It is 
not presumed, in this case, that the child had ac- 
tually died, though all the appearances of death were 
upon him. Thus viewed, the restoration was by 
magnetic influences, possibly from the prophet alone, 
but probably by the aid of spirits operating through 
him. 

A medium, or, as the Bible states, 2 Kings iv. 1, 
one of " the sons of the prophets," had died insolvent, 
and a creditor was about to take from the surviving 
widow " her two sons to be bondmen." In her dis- 
tress she said to Elisha, " Thine handmaid hath not 
anything in the house save a pot of oil." Elisha said 
to her in reply, " Go, borrow vessels of all thy neigh- 
bors — empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when 
thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee 
and thy sons, and shalt pour out into those vessels, 
and thou shalt set aside that which is full." 



108 MARVEL WORKERS. 

our mediums receive more or less of the unhealthy 
properties of those whose spheres they penetrate even 
psychologically. Psychic forces have always been 
subject to laws eternal, and acted formerly as now. 
Enough of Naaman's leprosy may either have been 
absorbed by Elisha, or brought by spirits to Elisha for 
the inoculation of Gehazi. By using the prophet's 
elements, spirits probably could give to the poisonous 
matter instantaneous action and complete develop- 
ment ; also could give to the disease so deep a seat, 
and such thorough permeation, as to render it trans- 
missible to Gehazi' s posterity. 

When an axman was felling a tree on the banks of 
Jordan, 2 Kings vi., the ax-head fell into the water, 
and the man said, " Alas ! for it was borrowed." Eli- 
sha, having inquired and learned where it fell, cut 
down a stick, cast it in thither, " and the iron did 
swim." This was a simple case of wonderful levita- 
tion, but under some observable conditions. A 
prophet or medium was present, who cut down and 
cast a stick upon the water over the ax, which stick, 
by general laws of impartation and reception, could 
become charged with some of Elisha's properties, and 
convey them near to the ax-head before it rose to and 
floated on the surface. 

When Elisha clairvoyantly acted the part of a spy 
for the king of Israel, whom the king of Syria w T as 
trying to capture, the Syrian king sent horses, chari- 
ots, and a great host, to surround the city of Dothan, 
where Elisha was then stopping, and to capture the 
spy. They came by night, and surrounded the city. 
Elisha's servant, rising early in the morning, saw the 
surrounding host, and said, " Alas ! master, how shall 



ELISHA. 109 

we do ? " " Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, open his 
eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes 
of the young man, and he saw ; and behold, the 
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, 
round about Elisha." At Elisha's request the hover- 
ing host smote the Syrians with blindness, so that he 
was able to lead them unawares into the very midst 
of their enemies ; and then, when they were helpless 
in the enemy's hands, the Lord opened their eyes. 
Soon — O, wonderful compassion for those times and 
for a prophet then! — soon Elisha induced the king of 
Israel to feed these enemies, and send them back to 
their master. 

The processes and agents by which the prophet 
here was enabled to baffle his enemies are not percep- 
tibly different from such as have been previously 
described. One new application of spirit power is, 
however, indicated in these last Scripture statements. 
Its use in opening the inner or spiritual eyes of Eli- 
sha's young companion is different from anything that 
has yet been considered. Who can suppose that there 
were any less horses and chariots of fire on the moun- 
tains round about Dothan, while the young man, 
though awake and alert, was unable to see them, than 
there were after his internal eyes had been opened for 
the discernment of spirit substances and forms ? 
Ever hovering angel bands about each mortal may 
be no mere poetic fictions, but as real and as powerful 
as these conquerors of the Syrian host. The angel 
hosts may be ever present, but the suitable eye to see 
them remains closed in most people. Special spirit 
action could open such an one in Elisha's servant, and 
can in some people to-day. 



110 MARVEL WORKERS. 

There is evidence in 2 Chron. xxi. 12 that some one 
in Elisha's clay was, on one occasion, a writing medium. 
The communication was from Elijah to king Jehoram. 
As no other person seems so probable and fitting an 
organ for Elijah to write through as his last compan- 
ion on earth, one may suggest the probability that 
Elisha was his penman. The strong reason for con- 
sidering that writing a spirit communication^ is the 
fact that it reached Jehoram about seven years after 
the ascension of Elijah. Notice may be taken also of 
the further facts that writing was more difficult and 
less common then than now, and that the prophets of 
Israel were more prone to enforce their denunciations 
of the rebellious kings by the magnetism of their per- 
sonal presence and the living voice than to write 
them ; and if Elijah, seven years before his ascen- 
sion, had any message for the king, he would have 
spoken it. 

By this simple explanation, that is, by admitting the 
possibility of such a process of communication by a de- 
parted spirit then, as has been positively employed by 
thousands of spirits within the last twenty-five years, 
an imagined rock of difficulty, which has long taxed 
the brains of commentators, and forced them to a 
groundless assumption, at once disappears. They 
need no longer put in the margin of the great Bible, 
opposite the account of Elijah's letter, "which was 
writ before his translation" It is easy now to explain 
how Elijah could have written it about the time of its 
reception, easy to find it probable that he did write it 
through Elisha's hand, after his translation, and thus 
justify the inclusion of Elijah in the long list of re- 
turning spirits. 



ELISHA. Ill 

One other matter, perhaps of marvelous character, 
is connected with Elisha's bones. When, after his 
burial, persons were about burying another man, they 
spied a band of hostile men who startled them. In 
haste to flee, they cast the dead man into the sepulcher 
of Elisha. And when the man was let down, and 
touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up 
on his feet. 2 Kings xiii. 21. Whether his touching 
any other object would have had the same result is a 
very natural and proper question ; yet it is one which 
can not get an answer deduced from known facts. 
The assumption that there was in his remains power, 
or the elements of special power, for the resuscitation 
of a cataleptic, is entirely justifiable- Such elements 
had been apart of himself; and his body, yes, even his 
bones would retain in some degree a portion of his 
properties of every kind, and might furnish his own or 
any other spirit means which would enable the spirit to 
lay hold upon the grosser physical of any cataleptic, and 
send quickening influences, like a flash, all through 
the seemingly dead man. We presume no intelligent 
reader will find in the narrative anything to conflict 
with the supposition that this was but one of the in- 
numerable cases in which bodies were carried forth for 
burial, seeming to be dead, while they were not so in 
fact. Suspension of perceptible animation, while im- 
perceptible remained, had come to this man, imprinting 
upon him the common aspect of death. The shock of 
his fall and his resuscitation occurred together. Pos- 
sibly one was the sole cause of the other, but probably 
virtue from out Elisha's bones helped on the process. ' 

No barbarity attaches to the recorded acts of Elisha, 
if he was not a voluntary utterer of the imprecation 

8 



112 MARVEL WORKERS. 

against the ill-behaved children, and he may not have 
been. The coming forth of the bears is not charged 
to him. His subjection of the Syrian host to only 
painless blindness or bewilderment, and his having 
them fed and sent home unharmed, are pleasing in- 
dices of his temper and of his dispositions toward his 
national foes. The severity of his inflictions upon 
Gehazi, because of his base moral turpitude, is not, 
perhaps, more than the case merited. If we feel that 
it ought to have terminated with the offender, and 
not be attachable to his offspring, we shall be asking 
for a deviation from the ordinary course of such dis- 
ease. On the whole, Elisha ranks well among the 
prophets of old, both in mediumistic power and in 
amiableness of personal character. 



HEZEKIAH. 

The prophet and good king Hezekiah, uniting in 
prayer with Isaiah, appears to have drawn forth an 
angel, 2 Chron. xxxii. 21, who cut off all the mighty 
men of valor, and the leaders and captains in the camp 
of the king of Assyria, and thus gave protection to 
the Israelites. Where the same event is recorded by 
Isaiah himself, in xxxvii. 86, the language is, " Then 
the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the 
camp of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and 
five thousand; and when they arose early in the 
morning, behold, the}^ were all dead corpses." Had 
this come from the pen of some one living, and who 
could be asked for an explanation, we should be 



HEZEKIAH. 113 

tempted to inquire who arose in the morning and be- 
held the sight, since " they were all dead corpses ; ' 
also to ask whether the number slain was five thou- 
sand one hundred and eighty, or one hundred and 
eighty-five thousand. But it is not our purpose to 
notice inaccuracies of grammar or indefiniteness of 
statements any further than they create ambiguity as 
to the real intent of the writer. We are willing to 
take the two accounts together, and to infer that five 
thousand one hundred and eighty of the mighty men 
of valor and of the officers were slain, and that when 
the mass of the army rose up in the morning, behold, 
their leaders were all dead corpses. However inter- 
preted, the prayers of the prophets seem to have 
called forth a very marvelous slaughter. In its ex- 
tent, and in the selection of victims, it bears strong 
resemblance to the destruction of the first-born in 
Egypt. The power of disembodied finite intelli- 
gences to slay men is by no means incredible. 

When Hezekiah was sick, seemingly "unto death," 
the Lord promised the prolongation of his life for fif- 
teen years, and testified to the validity of this promise 
by causing the shadow on the sun-dial to go back ten 
degrees. Deflection of the sun's rays, or an optical 
illusion, either, is presumably .within the power of 
finite spirits to produce, and one of these processes, or 
an equivalent to one of them, was employed. 



114 MARVEL WORKERS. 



JOB. 



There is not much in the interesting book of Job 
that comes readily into comparison with Spiritualism, 
and yet a few passages in it invite comments. The 
home feeling, Job i. 6, which possesses Satan when 
he comes among the sons of God and presents himself 
before the Lord, and also his familiar chat with God 
concerning the motives which induce Job to walk in 
uprightness, indicate a more friendly relation between 
him and the holy ones than the prevalent thought of 
our day adopts. The question, therefore, comes up 
whether our conceptions of God and of Satan are 
such as existed in the days of Job. If they are not, 
whose are the more correct? Certainly, by the laws 
of mind, we must deem our own most in harmony 
with the facts ; yet, in doing that, we sit in judgment 
upon the teachings of the Bible, and give to them less 
authority than to our own conclusions, if we omit to 
follow its leadings. Follow the Bible facts as given in 
Job, and will they not either put God below or raise 
Satan above the conditions which our conceptions as- 
sign to them ? No doubt is felt that it will be so in 
the case of nearly erery mind at this day. What, 
then, is a fair inference ? Seemingly this is. God, 
according to the conceptions of the ancients, was a 
much more limited being than that word suggests to 
our thoughts ; also Satan's dissimilarity to him, and 
distance from him, were not then deemed so great as 
we now conceive them to be. Is it not probable that 
any benevolent intelligence working in the unseen 



JOB. 115 

was, to the men of old, a God ? and also that any- 
malevolent one was Satan ? 

We like the sturdy manliness with which Job talks 
to God, maintains his own rectitude, and resolves to 
hold fast his integrity. His manfp.1 complaints come 
out with such emphasis and force as to throw a charm 
around him. He was patient in the sense in which a 
physician's charge is a patient, that is, a sufferer. 
And when, in later days, a New Testament writer 
said, " Ye have heard of the patience of Job," he no 
doubt spoke only of the amount of his sufferings, and 
not of the spirit in which he bore them. Job's 
graphic and eloquent cursing the day of his birth, 
chap, hi., is enough to show the quality of his 
patience, and shows it to have been suffering, suffer- 
ing intense enough to stir up in him outgushing and 
terrific wrath. This definition of patience is not a 
forced one, but comes legitimately from the Latin 
root. 

In the fourth chapter, Eliphaz the Temanite puts 
forth the following Spiritualism : " Now a thing was 
secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little 
thereof. In thoughts from the vision of the night, 
when deep sleep falleth upon men, fear came upon me, 
and trembling which made all my bones to shake. 
Then A SPIRIT passed before my face ; the hair of 
my head stood up ; it stood still ; but I could not dis- 
cern the form thereof ; an image was before mine 
eyes ; there was silence ; and I heard a voice, saying, 
Shall mortal man be more just than God ? " 

That shaking of the bones by the spirit presence, 
that trembling, that inability to 'discern the spirit 
form, that hearing of a spirit voice, all show that 



116 MAHVEL WORKERS. 

Eliphaz had such experiences as many mediums are 
having to-day. In his case there is Bible authority 
for asserting the presence and influence of a spirit 
while he was thus affected. 

In the thirty-eighth and following chapters are 
some of the most instructive, elevating, and eloquent 
teachings concerning God, and ascribed to God, which 
the Old Testament contains. This whole book is a 
poem, and its characters may be mainly fictitious, yet 
it sets forth the prevailing ideas concerning God, Sa- 
tan, and man, together with their reciprocal relations, 
which prevailed in a very remote age. 



ISAIAH. 



This prophet had the peculiarities which in our day 
would constitute an eminent speaking medium. We 
notice only two occasions on which mention is made 
of the putting forth of mediumistic powers by him, 
otherwise than in speech. In those two the medium- 
istic king Hezekiah was associated with him. These 
were the change on the sun-dial, and the death of the 
Assyrian captains and men of valor. Perhaps the 
properties needful to such operations belonged to 
Hezekiah alone. 

Isaiah had a vision, chap, vi., in which he saw what 
seemed to him " the King, the Lord of Hosts," and he 
said, " Woe is me " for what " mine eyes have seen," 
obviously laboring under a belief that no man can see 
God and live. But he did live on. Whether his sur- 
vival argues that he saw not God, but only some glo- 



JEREMIAH. 117 

rious personage that seemed to him as God, may be 
left to the decision of such as dissent from the opinion 
expressed when Moses was under consideration, viz., 
that the expression imputed to God, which says, " No 
man can see my face and live," may mean this, viz., 
"No man while alive can see my real face ; no one 
can see it till he becomes himself a spirit." If a sight 
of God was sure death, then prophets who survived 
their visions did not see him, though they may have 
believed that they did, and spoken accordingly. Isa- 
iah was used mainly for the enunciation of clear, 
strong, forcible words and thoughts. In diction and 
thought he often rose to the majestic and sublime. 

We have no account that Balaam's powers were 
ever exercised upon anything that had not animal life. 
The general characteristics of his mediumship, and 
that of Isaiah, perhaps, were much alike. They were 
prophets, according to the present meaning of that 
word, more distinctly so than almost any others. 
They had far-reaching glimpses into the future, and 
uttered prophecies which had fulfillment long centuries 
after the lips which uttered them had moldered into 
dust. 



JEREMIAH. 

The word of the Lord said to this prophet, "Be- 
fore I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee ; and be- 
fore thou earnest forth from the womb I sanctified 
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." 
Does this mean anything more than that his medi- 
umistic capabilities were foreseen ? Afterward the 



118 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Lord put forth his hand, and touched Jeremiah's 
mouth, and said to him, " Behold, I have put my 
words into thy mouth." From that time forth he 
became the chief prophet of Israel during many years 
just preceding and during the captivity of that people, 
and their forced removal to Babylon. He lived in 
dismal and trying times, and his utterances are often 
in the sad tones of lamentation. 

Hananiah, the prophet, Jerem. xxviii., prophesied, 
saying, " Thus saith the Lord, ... I will break the 
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the 
neck of all nations within the space of two full years." 
But Jeremiah responded to him, " Thus saith the Lord 
of Hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of 
iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may 
serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they 
shall serve him." Here we have two men, each of 
whom is called prophet, each of whom says, " Thus 
saith the Lord," differing in their predictions in refer- 
ence to the continuance of Nebuchadnezzar's ascend- 
ency. They come into direct conflict. This shows 
that there was of old inequality in mediumistic powers 
for accurate forecastings, and that there were some- 
times contests between mediumistic persons. Hanan- 
iah and Jeremiah both were, among the Jews, accred- 
ited prophets of the same God, and yet they differed 
in their foresensings of coming events. 

Nothing that in these times would be called a 
physical manifestation is mentioned in connection 
with Jeremiah. He was a clear-seeing, accurate 
prophet concerning the present and the relatively 
near future of Israel, and of the nations immediately 
around him ; but his vision did not induce him to 



EZEKIEL. 119 

record anything which seemed to lie so much as one 
century in advance of his day. In sympathy for and 
devotion to his people, and in personal and prophetic 
character, he appears to stand well. 



EZEKIEL. 

" The word of the Lord," i. 3, " came expressly unto 
Ezekiel, the priest," who says, i. 1, " As I was among 
the captives by the river of Chebar, the heavens were 
opened, and I saw visions of God." Strange visions 
they were. The objects beheld were unnatural mon- 
strosities, grotesque, and beyond intelligible descrip- 
tion. "Four living creatures" were seen, which 
" had the likeness of a man," and " as for the likeness 
of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and 
the face of a lion on the right side ; and they four 
had the face of an ox on the left side ; they four also 
had the face of an eagle ; ' ..." their appearance 
and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle 
of a wheel." This, and very much more equally in- 
comprehensible, is put forth as descriptive of things 
seen in " visions of God." Such uncouth forms prob- 
ably were beheld while the prophet was in a low stage 
of mediumistic development, and before his spiritual 
optics and other inner faculties had become reliable. 
At that time he needed discipline and training, per- 
haps, for he subsequently experienced them most 
thoroughly, became in time a clear seer, a lucid de- 
lineator, and perspicuous teacher. Striking peculiar- 
ities of mediumship, however, manifested themselves 
in him for many years. His modes were largely sym- 



120 MARVEL WORKERS. 

bolical, pictorial, and pantomimic. His whole physi- 
cal system was more extensively controlled by super- 
mundane force than that of almost any other one of 
the biblical authors. He was made to quake when 
eating, and to tremble when drinking. 

Above the firmament that was over those four 
strange " living creatures " was " the likeness of a 
throne," and " upon the likeness of the throne was 
the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon 
it." " And," writes Ezekiel, " when I saw it, I fell 
upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake > 
. . . and, ii., he said unto me, Stand upon thy feet ; 
. . . and the spirit entered into me when he spake 
unto me ; . . . and when I looked, behold, an hand 
was sent unto me, and lo, a roll of a book was there- 
in. ... I opened my mouth, and he caused me to 
eat that roll." On a subsequent occasion, iii. 24, he 
says, " The spirit entered into me, . . . and said, Go, 
shut thyself within thine house, . . . and I will make 
thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou 
shalt be dumb; . . . but when /speak with thee, I 
will open thy mouth." Twice, the prophet says, the 
spirit entered into him when he spoke, thus indicat- 
ing his consciousness that some intelligent being, for- 
eign to himself, spoke within and by use of his physi- 
cal system. Perhaps it is not proved, but it is rendered 
probable, that Ezekiel, who defines the spirit that 
entered into him as "the appearance of a man," 
viewed the matter of spirit influence in his own case 
just as we do, so far as relates to the nature or grade 
of his controller ; that is, he deemed it some disem- 
bodied finite spirit. 

Many of Ezekiel 9 s experiences were,, obviously,, 



EZEKIEL. 121 

mental only, though he describes some such in terms 
which might have been employed were he describing 
bodily journeys and sights. Sometimes, however, 
there were performed through and upon his physical 
system things laughable for their seeming childish- 
ness, and also at other times things too oppressive or 
too offensive for patient contemplation. In his twelfth 
chapter he describes how he was enjoined to move his 
own household furniture from place to place, and by 
such pantomime prophesy the coming captivity and 
removal of the people of Israel. The same general 
object being had in view, he himself was made to 
quake when eating, and to tremble when drinking. 
This seeminHv submissive and willing instrument in 
the hands of some Lord, this good prophet and good 
man, was subjected to such usage by his master as 
would to-day call forth public reprobation. 

According to the record in chapter iv., he was in- 
structed to take a tile, and draw upon it a map of 
Jerusalem ; lay siege against this map city ; cast a 
mount against it ; build a fort against it ; set a batter- 
ing-ram against it round about ; and, more boyish 
still, take an iron pan, and set that for a wall of iron 
between himself and the city, and lay siege against it. 
In doing all that, the prophet may have been exposed 
to nothing more than popular laugh at his extreme 
childishness. Personal hardship of a different kind, 
however, was before him. He was required to lie on 
his left side, bearing the iniquities of the house of 
Israel three hundred and ninety days, and then on his 
right side, bearing the iniquities of the house of Judah 
forty days. This requirement was to be rigidly en- 
forced ; for his controller said, " I will lay bands upon 



122 MARVEL WOKKEES. 

thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to 
the other till thou hast ended the days of thy siege." 
That seems hard enough ; but worse followed. He 
was directed to make bread enough to last him three 
hundred and ninety days. Wheat, barley, beans, len- 
tiles, millet, and fitches were to be mixed together, 
and constitute his bread. The ingredients thus far 
are not objectionable ; but another adjunct, if not in- 
gredient, was revolting to the prophet, as well as to 
every reader. The pen reluctantly quotes, even from 
the Bible, such a requirement, as follows : " Thou 
shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it 
with dung that cometh out of man." We w r ould like 
to understand that the offensive article was to be used 
only as fuel. But Ezekiel at once exclaimed in prot- 
estation, u Ah, Lord God, my soul hath not been 
polluted, . . . neither came there abominable flesh into 
my mouth." Then the Lord responded, " I have 
given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt 
prepare thy bread therewith." ' Such words admit of 
no interpretation which will remove all filthiness from 
that requirement. 

It is no part of our special purpose to vindicate or 
justify any one, who, under the appellation " God," 
" Lord," " Word of the Lord," " Angel of the Lord," 
or any man-spirit, controlled and inspired the proph- 
ets and apostles of antiquity. Yet when one of them 
treated a man as Ezekiel was treated, it is comfort- 
ing to fancy that he may have seen some promise 
of future g'ood in his own course which escapes ordi- 
nary detection. Very many people in the present age 
have witnessed usage of mediumistic persoi^s whom 
spirits were manipulating, and fitting for their own 



EZEKIEL. 123 

handling as organs of communication, which approxi- 
mates in strangeness, severity, and offensiveness, those 
impositions upon Ezekiel ; the alleged reason for 
which has been, that thus the chemical conditions of 
the subjects operated upon would be so changed that 
their ifiner organs would have freer play, and be more 
reliable and efficient in transmitting information from 
the unseen to the external world. 

Ezekiel's report of his first vision indicates that 
objects then seen by him were too fantastic and 
whimsical to be recognized as intelligible instructors, 
or even as possible existences. Judged by that sam- 
ple, his mediumship very much needed improvement. 
During much of the succeeding twenty years or more 
he continued to prophesy, and prevailingly spoke with 
clearness and power, though his constitutional pro- 
pensity to be figurative and fanciful is observable on 
nearly every page of his records. If his severe disci- 
pline was imposed for the purpose of rendering him 
more plastic in spirit hands, and thus a better instru- 
ment for prophecy, there need be no question that the 
intelligence which imposed his burdens could, would, 
and did give him such sustaining help as saved him 
from permanent harm, and also qualified either his 
senses or the odors and properties of his food, so that 
his bread may have been palatable and nourishing to 
him, even while his people were seeing in it and him 
a pantomimic prophecy of coming destitution and hun- 
ger, which would make even most loathsome food ac- 
ceptable to them. Sometimes, and especially when 
spirits operate, "things are not as they seem " to us. 
Obscure in the outset, Ezekiel subsequently, because 
of or in spite of his hard treatment, became a per- 



124 MAEYEL WOEKEtfS. 

spicuous and noble prophet, and amply compensated 6 
his trainers and the world for whatever labors were 
bestowed upon him. He was rather an endurer tkan 
a producer of physical marvels ; physically he was 
a marvel sufferer more than a marvel worker. 



DANIEL- 

Another seer and hearer of spirits, another pro- 
phetic visionist, whose instructions and help came 
partly from the ascended spirits of departed men, 
comes before us in the personage of Daniel, one of 
the most persistently pure, conscientious, true, and 
amiable of the ancient revelators and marvel workers. 
In connection with him it will be convenient to take 
brief notice of four others, named by him, and in- 
woven in his experiences. 

When Xebuchaclnezzar, king of Babylon, had con- 
quered Jerusalem, and carried its captured inhabitants 
to his own country, he gave orders that certain young 
men from among his captives should be brought to 
his palace, fed" at his own table, and taught the learn- 
ing and language of the Chaldeans. Among those se- 
lected were Daniel, Shadrac, Meshae, and Abed-nego. 

Some years after this the king had a dream, which 
escaped his memory. His soothsayers, magicians, and 
the like were called upon to make known to him 
both what the forgotten dream itself was, and what 
it signified. They failed to execute so hard a task. 
But the matter was revealed unto Daniel "in a night 
vision." He made known the dream itself, and also 



DANIEL. 125 

its signification. This brought him office, influence, 
and honor. 

Subsequently, because of their refusal to worship 
this king's god, Shadrac, Meshac, and Abed-nego were 
cast, bound, into a burning fiery furnace, so intensely 
flaming that its fires killed the men who cast these 
victims in. Soon the king, starting up in haste, said, 
"I see four men, loose, walking in the midst of the 
fire, and they have no hurt ; and the form of the 
fourth is like the Son of God." The king and his 
friends " saw those men, upon whose bodies the fire 
had no power, nor was an hair of their heads singed, 
neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire 
had passed on them." Receiving that account as ac- 
curate, Babylon then witnessed one of the most won- 
derful cases on record in which adequate help from 
an unseen source effectually shielded men exposed to 
extremest peril. 

It is well known to-day, that there are times when 
some mediumistic persons can and do take live coals 
in their bare hands, and hold them through successive 
minutes, without being^t all burned or singed. Give 
some spirits right conditions, and they can instantly 
involve or in wrap some persons in an invisible asbes- 
tos or fire-proof robe. King Nebuchadnezzar was 
probably mediumistic himself, since he saw that fourth 
form, which was like the Son of God. Nothing is in- 
dicated definitely as to the properties of the three 
rescued men. They had long been intimate compan- 
ions of Daniel, and, like him, lived most simply. 
When he solicited the vision in which he learned the 
king's unremembered dream and its interpretation, 
he asked these same three friends to " desire mercies 



126 MARVEL WORKERS. 

of the God of heaven concerning that secret." 
Therefore, as a medium he sought their co-operation, 
and the inference from this is, that they were helpful 
toward the end he sought. Their peculiar and mar- 
velous deliverance itself makes it probable that either 
one or more of them had a sufficiency of mediumistic 
properties, in both quantity and quality, to enable 
that fourth and unexpected companion to execute 
such spirit chemistry as would not only shield these 
exposed men from the devouring action of flames, but 
would also set and keep in unwonted motion their in- 
combustible spirit lungs. The agents and instrumen- 
talities by which Shadrac, Meshac, and Abed-n&go 
were saved, may have been finite intelligences using 
only natural, though recondite, elements and forces. 

There is, in chapter v., an account of the feast of Bel- 
shazzar, who was son and successor of the king named 
above. In the banquet hall, while the great feast was 
in progress, there " came forth fingers of a man's hand, 
and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plas- 
ter of the wall of the king's palace ; and the king saw 
the part of the hand that wrote." Such a sight, and 
especially such operations, are very common now. A 
spirit hand was formed and used for writing more 
than twenty -four centuries ago, and therefore the sim- 
ilar operations of to-day are far from novelties. The 
occurrence of like phenomena in such widely distant 
eras creates a probability that they are the legitimate 
outworkings of eternal forces. 

Years rolled on, till Daniel worshiped his own 
God in defiance of the decree of king Darius, who 
was then in power over him. The penalty for such 
an act was precipitation into the den of lions. Dan- 



DANIEL. 127 

iel's sentence was pnt into execution. He spent a 
night among those kings of the forest, and in the 
morning was able to say to the king, tk My God hath 
sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths that 
they have not hurt me." Power that controls brutes 
is often put forth by spirits. In Daniel's mediumistic 
presence great facilities for such action might natural- 
ly be looked for. 

In chapter x. of his record, Daniel says, " I lifted 
up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man 
clothed in linen : . . . his body was like the beryl, his 
face as the appearance of lightning, his eyes as lamps 
of fire, his arms and feet like in color to polished 
brass." This appearance, expressly called a man, 
obviously did not possess an animated organism of 
human flesh, bones, and covering. Further on the 
account says, " I, Daniel, alone saw the vision ; the 
men that were with me saw not the vision, but a 
great quaking fell upon them." In this case, as in 
that of Paul, several centuries later, the spirit auras 
and forces attendant upon, and used in producing, a 
prophetic medumistic vision were such as permeated 
and agitated the physical and mental systems of other 
persons who were in company with the visionist, thus 
giving indication of the efflux of a moderately ma- 
terialized aura, or sphere, or holy ghost from the spirit 
world earthward, acting not only in and upon the 
one whose interior vision and other spiritual faculties 
were to be put in cognizable action, but also awaken- 
ing fear and trembling in others who were in close 
proximity to the prophet. 

His companions " fled and hid themselves," so that 
Daniel goes on saying, " I was left alone, and saw 
9 



128 MARVEL WORKERS, 

this great vision ; . . . and I retained no strength, jet 
I heard his words while in a deep sleep " or trance. 
This narrative indicates that the instrumentalities and 
processes applied to, and the physical effects produced 
upon, ancient prophets, in fitting them for receiving 
communications, and for their exercise of the pro- 
phetic functions, were essentially the same as dwell- 
ers in the unseen realms around us now apply to, or 
produce upon, mediums ; establishes the probability 
that there exists in the nature of things provision for 
a lawful admission and regulation of intercourse and 
reciprocal action between embodied men and other 
men conditioned like those seen and heard by Daniel ; 
and that no infraction of natural law was ever needful 
for the manifestation of any marvel which man has 
ever witnessed. 

When this vision was obtained, Daniel had been 
"mourning three full weeks." By mourning he prob- 
ably meant a prolonged and humble praying for 
knowledge, and especially for foreknowledge of what 
would befall the people of Israel in future ages. For 
his shining visitant robed in linen said to him, " From 
the first day thou didst set thine heart to understand, 
and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words 
were heard ; and I am come for [because of] thy 
words. ... I am come to make thee understand what 
shall befall thy people in the latter days." Thus it is 
manifest that the devout and reverential prophet 
prayerfully sought during three full weeks to pry 
into the secrets of the future. If that precedent be 
bad, it was set very deliberately and reverentially by 
a man of deep wisdom and genuine piety. Why did 
three full weeks elapse before his desires were grati- 



DANIEL. 129 

fied? An instructive and interesting answer lurks 
in the obscurely constructed and worded thirteenth 
verse. The spirit in linen heard Daniel on the very 
first day of the three weeks during which he was 
calling upon power or powers above himself. When 
this responding angel came, he explained the reason 
of his tardiness thus: "The prince of the kingdom of 
Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but lo, 
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ; 
and I remained there with the kings of Persia." 
This, at the first view, is not very lucid; it may need 
■unfolding. The speaker was a spirit, dwelling with 
spirits, and called upon the spirit prince of Persia, 
who " withstood him for one and twenty days." 
Why, and in what, Avithstand him? In the twenti- 
eth verse one of the spirit speakers to Daniel said, 
" Now will I return to fight with the prince of Per- 
sia." This same speaker, addressing Daniel, said, 
" Michael your prince holdeth himself with me," or 
worketh with me, "in these things." The idea is 
thus evolved that Michael, spirit prince of Israel, to- 
gether with other princes, were co-operative fighters 
with the spirit prince of Persia; and that affairs were 
in such condition then that the prince of Persia was 
unwilling to spare Michael to go in company with the 
man in linen to answer Daniel's prayer until after the 
lapse of twenty-one days. Therefore the man in linen 
"remained there with the kings of Persia" until the 
prince of Persia consented to spare " Michael, one of 
the chief princes," who then did accompany the "man 
in linen" to Daniel, and help to develop the prophet's 
perceptions, and give him knowledge of what should 
"befall his people in the latter days." Seemingly, 



130 MARVEL WORKERS. 

therefore, Daniel had to remain in the agonies of 
loneliness and prayer — remain in "mourning" — three 
full weeks, because the services of the spirit prince, 
Michael, were during all that time more important to 
the prince of Persia than to Daniel's friend in linen. 

The portion of narrative thus read is unusually sug- 
gestive in relation to the occupations of spirits and 
the force of conditions over them. They can not al- 
ways promptly meet each call; they may sometimes 
have more important things on hand than what other 
spirits, or what men, ask them to do. Also, the in- 
ference is made admissible that particular spirits only 
are competent to particular operations upon particu- 
lar men; otherwise we should expect the sympa- 
thetic man in linen to have aided Daniel alone, or 
have called any spirit to help him. He waited for 
Michael, and thus raises the presumption that only 
Michael could meet the demands of the case. 

How was Daniel himself affected when the vision 
did come on ? His strength all went from him ; he 
went into a deep sleep ; he became dumb. Such 
effects are exact prototypes of modern mediumistic 
experiences. 

Prior to what he calls the " great vision," this seer 
had, perhaps all unsolicited on his part, seen a vision, 
viii. 15, and was seeking to divine its meaning, when 
there " stood before him as the appearance of a man, 
and he heard a man's voice, . . . which called and 
said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. 
. . . As he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep." 
Thus one spirit man perceived that Daniel was in 
mental perplexity, and asked another spirit man, Ga- 
briel, to help Daniel out of his difficulty. Again, 



JONAH. 131 

ix. 21, Daniel says, "Whiles I was speaking in prayer, 
even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision 
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched 
me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give 
thee skill and understanding." 

One spirit requested another to come to Daniel's 
help. The spirit thus called, the man Gabriel, — spirit 
man, — did come to give him skill and understanding. 
Apparently, the special work of Gabriel here was to 
unfold and feed Daniel's mental perceptive faculties. 

Thus the Scriptures themselves instruct us that 
Daniel applied terms to his heavenly inspirers, teach- 
ers, and helpers which manifestly show that he con- 
ceived them to be finite intelligences. He certainly 
called one disembodied visitor "the man Gabriel." 
The special hearer of his prayer, who came in response 
to his call, he spoke of as "a certain man clothed in 
linen." Another one had " the appearance of a man" 
And a fourth wore " the similitude of the sons of men." 
Such terms surely show that the immediate inspirers 
and teachers of this prophet were far other than the 
Infinite One, and may take rank with him whom 
John fell down to worship. 



JONAH. 



The word of the Lord, i. 1, 2, 3, came unto Jonah, 
saying, Go to Nineveh, and cry against it. But Jo- 
nah, instead of obeying, rose up to flee unto Tarshish 
"from the presence of the Lord." Why was he thus 
disobedient? Why thus a deserter? Because, iv. 2, 



132 MARVEL WORKERS. 

he then prophetically foreknew, that if he should go 
to Nineveh, and utter the prescribed denunciation, 
the Ninevites would so humble themselves and la- 
ment that the God who called upon him ivould repent 
of the evil "that," iii. 10, u he had said he would do 
unto them." And what would be the consequence to 
Jonah? Why, he would be forced to bear the stigma 
of prophesying falsely ; would appear to be either un- 
truthful himself, or the mouthpiece of a changeable 
God ; would be obliged to so speak that either him- 
self or his master must seem to be a contemptible dog, 
furious at barking, but lacking force to bite. Such 
was his position as he foresaw it. It is to his credit 
that he sought to escape from the service of one who 
was about to make such humiliating use of him. 

Jonah's attempt to flee from the presence of that 
special Lord whose word came to him, teaches very 
clearly his belief that he was asked to be the ser- 
vant of some finite, limited being ; his foreknowledge 
that this Lord could and would be so moved by com- 
passion as to withhold the execution of his own threats, 
teaches that he conceived himself to be called upon by 
some one very different from that Jehovah, " the Most 
High over all the earth," who ever moves on in his 
majestic course, " without variableness or shadow of 
turning." But it does not follow from the above, 
that this truth-loving prophet and stickler for fair 
usage was destitute of a conception of, and high re- 
gard for, a God far above that particular Lord wha 
called upon him to denounce woe. For he said, i. 9, 
"I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made 
the sea and the dry land." It may be a forced read- 
ing which would make Jonah say, "Because I fear 



JONAH. 133 

that God of heaven who made the sea and the dry- 
land, because I fear the Infinite God of truth and 
fair dealing, therefore I am attempting to flee from a 
Lord who wishes to make me threaten on his behalf 
what he himself will lack firmness to execute." But 
unless we do ascribe to him thoughts like those, we 
find him the worshiper of only a very limited God — 
more limited than his Maker of the sea and land. 

When called upon to go to Nineveh, he, for the 
good and justifying reasons above indicated, i. 3, 
started off in another direction for Joppa, there found 
a ship ready to sail for Tarshish, paid his fare for 
passage in her, and went on board " to go with them 
unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." He 
therefore believed that a short voyage would place 
him beyond the presence and reach of that particular 
Lord who wanted to use his organs of utterance- 
Where is there room for a single doubt that Jonah 
regarded that Lord who talked with, and desired to 
control him, as being such an one as he could escape 
from? In his conceptions, that God w r as finite, limited, 
quite limited, in his habitation. Yet that Lord or 
God was moved by good intentions ; his failings were 
on the side of mercy. For Jonah says to him, iv. 2, 
" I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, 
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest 
thee of the evil." All of these words, excepting the 
last clause, may be applied equally well to either an 
imperfect finite or to a perfect infinite being. But 
the phrase "repentest thee," though frequently con- 
nected in Scripture with God and with Lord, is not ap- 
plicable to that which is set forth by the term Jeho- 
vah, or by the words Infinite Source. 



134 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Tempest threatened to founder the ship in which 
Jonah was thinking to sail away from the presence of 
his Lord. He himself, and the sailors too, believed 
that it was because of his* presence on board that the 
storm raged so violently. The casting of lots desig- 
nated him as the cause of rage in the elements. At 
once Jonah, in the tones of philanthropic heroism, 
says, i. 12, " Take me up, and cast me forth into the 
sea ; so shall the sea be calm unto you : for I know 
that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." 
Seemingly this magnanimity called forth reluctance 
in the hardy seamen to harm a man so self-devoted, 
so ready to sacrifice his own life for their preserva- 
tion. They again " rowed hard to bring the ship to 
land, but could not." Wearied and baffled, at length 
" they took up Jonah r and cast him forth into the sea; 
and the sea ceased from her raging." 

"Now," i. 17, "the Lord had prepared a great fish to 
swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of 
the fish three days and three nights." Perhaps there 
is not another statement of marvel in the whole Bible 
w r hich the popular mind deems more incredible than 
this relating to Jonah and his fish. Judged by any 
common standards of credibility, it is found wanting 
in the required evidence. Objectors have sometimes 
attempted to indicate its impossibility by stating that 
a whale's gullet is exceedingly small, and could not 
be made to admit the passage of a man's body through 
it. Such objections are based, not on Jonah's descrip- 
tion, but on a translation of Matthew, who wrote eight 
or nine hundred years later. The word w r hale does 
not occur in the translation of the prophet's own nar- 
rative. He calls his living vessel a " great fish," al- 



JONAH. 135 

lowing selection from all that swim. But prove it to 
have been a whale if you can, specify any contract- 
edness of gullet you please, and nothing then is done 
which places the feat beyond the powers over matter 
which disembodied finite intelligences are often mani- 
festing. 

" And," ii. 10, "the Lord spake unto the fish, and it 
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." What say 
those who maintain that fishes do not hear ? One fish 
was spoken to, and obeyed a command. There is no 
occasion, however, to suppose that the fish heard and 
comprehended the meaning of words. The case is 
well met by conceiving that the fish felt an impulse 
to approach the shore and discharge his cargo upon 
dry land. The speaking of the Lord in this case and 
a vast many others may have been simply his creating 
an impulse or inclination to do this and that. Jonah 
was brought back to the post and services he had de- 
serted by experiences which made him practically cry, 
Enough! Enough! 

We must follow him a little farther. A second 
time, iii. 2, the Lord said to him, " Go unto Nineveh, 
and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." 
He went now as commanded, and in the city cried 
and said, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over- 
thrown." Thereupon the people humbled themselves 
and mourned, so that, v. 10, " God repented of the 
€vil that he had said he would do unto them ; and he 
did it not." But "this displeased Jonah exceedingly, 
and he was very angry." Who blames him for being 
mad? Who blames him for being angry toward that 
Lord who, against his own will and sense of right, 
forced him to become an involuntary mouthpiece of 



136 MARVEL WORKERS. 

threats which he foresensed would not be executed on 
time, and therefore perceived in advance that himself 
must bear the. humiliation of being deemed either an 
untruthful man, a false prophet, or the tool of a re~ 
pentant, and therefore an unreliable, backer? Who 
blames him? And who fails to sympathize with the 
just and manly resentment that reveals itself when he 
adds, "Take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it 
is better for me to die than to live " ? 

Jonah was no craven— no humiliated beggar for 
life or temporal favors from the God that pursued, ar- 
rested, overpowered, and forced him into untruthful 
service. He manfully says, Take my life now, for 
you have made my condition worse than death. God 
said to him, " Doest thou well to be angry ? ' And his 
emphatic answer was, " I do well to be angry, even unto 
death." He stuck to his position unflinchingly, and 
like one conscious that he was right. 

It is true that his God asked him only whether he 
did well to be angry for the loss of his gourd. The 
whole narrative shows that he was smarting under 
the many combined indignities that had been put 
upon him, and that his answer might well be, and 
probably was, a general one, covering the mortifying 
fact that he had been made the tool of one who had 
filched from him his good name as a prophet. No 
childish fretfulness, but strong resentment of great 
and repeated indignities and wrongs seems to move 
him when he says, "I do well to be angry, even unto 
death." Though traduced in the world's estimation 
by his association with a supposed incredible fish story, 
Jonah, when carefully examined, may take high rank 
among the worthies of the elder days as a man true to 
frankness, justice, and fair dealings. 



JOKAH. 137 

Rating this prophet thus high, how shall we regard 
that Lord who so dealt with him as to give him just 
cause for resentment? I am averse to regard the 
Most High God as having been the immediate con- 
troller of this prophet, and the narrative fails to fur- 
nish any probable evidence that Jonah himself so 
regarded him. He could hardly have been so de- 
mented as to suppose that he could flee beyond the 
presence of that God of heaven who made both the 
sea and the dry land, and whom he feared, but must 
have believed himself to be called upon by some more 
limited and local being. And then his anger and his 
boldness are such as an intelligent religious man could 
hardly be found to manifest toward his supreme ob- 
ject of worship. A supposition that some being dealt 
with Jonah who was not more elevated in rank than 
that one who was seen and heard by John, forces it- 
self out from the narrative, and thus lets the char- 
acter and course of the Supreme Ruler stand untar- 
nished by suspicion of unfair dealing or of nonfulfill- 
ment of his word ; while the lesser Lord, or God, or 
Spirit who spoke to and abused Jonah, may be either 
approved or condemned by man, according to his 
judgment of the intrinsic merits of that particular 
being. 

The special marvels connected with this prophet 
are, the raging of a tempest because of his presence 
on the sea; his absorption by, preservation in, and 
ejection from a fish; and the rapid growth of a gourd 
over him. Students of spirit manifestations in this 
nineteenth century will not overlook the statement 
that, at the coming on of the tempest, Jonah, i. 5, 
was down in the sides of the ship, fast asleep. If 



138 MARVEL WORKERS. 

that tempest was merely a local one, raised by spirits 
around that particular ship, Jonah, as the earthly me- 
dium, was in as good condition as possible for furnish- 
ing those physical elements which the hovering spirits 
would require for the operation. The condition or 
state of sleep — perhaps of trance — and the absence 
of the body from amid the confusion on deck, were 
very favorable points. The declaration that, as soon 
as Jonah was cast overboard, "the sea ceased from her 
raging," comports well with what might occur when 
Spirits, having accomplished one purpose, ceased to 
put forth any longer their agitating power upon the 
elements, and bent their forces upon the great fish 
and the man overboard. The power of spirits to 
manage a beast under Balaam, the lions around Dan- 
iel, and ravens as food-bearers to Elijah, imply their 
possible power over other species of animated nature. 
Jonah, a plastic medium probably, as most of the 
other prophets were, could be sustained by the breath- 
ing of his inner spirit lungs, as many persons in a 
state of trance have been for more than five times 
three days, and his body could be shielded by chem- 
ical appliances from the digesting action of the ani- 
mated fish. Given a gourd seed, their powers for 
forcing the growth of a vine from it may have been 
adequate to the result claimed ; also, it was possible 
for them to have canopied a medium under a spirit 
shelter, which should appear to him like a material 
one. Such agents and processes are not put forth as 
those which actually pertained to the experiences of 
Jonah, but only as such as modern observation has 
taught may exist and operate within the scope of 
powers possessed by finite intelligences. Minor Gods 



APOCRYPHA. 139 

and Lords naturally, and not specially subordinate to 
Jehovah, using forces finer than the external senses 
of men detect, may have been competent to produce 
all that Jonah claimed to have experienced. He was 
a suffering and speaking medium, and if the tempest 
was got up specially on his account, and the fish 
tamed and manipulated for his accommodation, he 
probably possessed abundantly the properties of a 
medium for physical manifestations. 



APOCRYPHA. 

Between the Old and New Testaments, in all the 
large Bibles printed more than fifty years ago, and in 
many of more recent issue, there is inserted a collec- 
tion of writings called the Apocrypha. These books 
were written by contemporaries and equals of some 
of the authors of the canonical books, and essentially 
are of much the same authority as the other literary 
legacies from the same people and time. Tobit gives 
an account of the spiritualistic experiences of himself 
and his son Tobias, in the apocryphal book which 
bears his name, that is so marked, distinct, and inter- 
esting that we give it insertion here. 



TOBIT. 



According to his autobiographical sketch, which 
seems to be honest and frank, Tobit was an Israelite, 



140 MARVEL WORKERS. 

nearly contemporary with Jonah, who alwaj^s, from 
his youth, adhered to the God of Abraham, was faith- 
ful among the faithless, was also a captive, and was 
taken to Nineveh. There he was made purve3 T or to 
the king. But, though a captive and in office, he, 
like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, kept 
himself from eating the food of the heathen, and fvom 
joining in their worship. Living in times of political 
disturbances, he early took the precaution to go into 
Media, and there deposit his silver money with one 
Gabael. Troubles kept him for a long time from go- 
ing to reclaim his property. 

Tobit was a man of much practical benevolence, 
especially toward his brethren in captivity, giving 
food, clothing, and burial to the needy with great 
liberality, and with great personal risk. Indeed, be- 
cause of his burying some of his brethren whom the 
king had slain, his life was threatened, his property 
was all forcibly taken from him, and he had to flee 
from the country. His wife, Anna, and his son, To- 
bias, were all that was left to him. 

Fifty or sixty days later that king whom he had of- 
fended was slain. This event soon made it safe for 
him to return to his family, which he did, and there 
in a short time became blind. In their poverty, his 
wife took in " women's work to do." Some kind em- 
ployers, besides paying her wages, gave her a kid. 
Tobit surmised that she might have stolen the kid. 
Her outspoken resentment of the imputation created 
a family jar, which grieved good Tobit, made him 
weep, and moved him to prayer. In his prayer, and 
because of having received false reproaches, he asks 
that he may die. 



TOBIT. 



141 



His narrative goes on to say, that the same day, in 
Media, one Sara, daughter of his cousin Raguel, " was 
reproached by her father's maids, because that she 
had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmode- 
us, the evil spirit, had killed before they had lain with 
her. Dost thou not know," said they, " that thou hast 
strangled thine husbands?" Thus, by implication, 
accused of murders, she was very sorrowful, and first 
thought of relief by suicide. Soon, however, she 
turned to the Lord, and said to him in prayer, " Take 
me out of the earth, that I may hear this reproach no 
more." The prayers of both Tobit in Nineveh, and 
Sara at Rages, in Media, were heard at the same time, 
and promptly arrangements were made in the spirit 
world for their relief. 

Tobit, in his poverty, remembers the money which 
he had long ago deposited with Gabael, in Media, and 
thinks it best to send his son Tobias to get it. He 
spoke to his son, and, being about to start the young 
man off on a long and hazardous journey, availed him- 
self of the occasion to make a long address. He then 
gave Tobias most excellent advice relating to his gen- 
eral duties, both as a man and an Israelite, and ad- 
vised him to take a wife from among his kindred. 

Matters having gone thus far, Tobit gave to his son 
a written order on Gabael for the money. Tobias 
needed a companion and guide on his journey into a 
land all unknown to himself. The father, therefore, 
sent him out to seek for a suitable one. Tobias met a 
stranger, and said to him, " Canst thou go with me to 
Rages? " The reply was, "I will go with thee, and 
I know the way well, for I have lodged with our 
brother Gabael." Tobias reported success. His 



142 MAEVEL WOEKEES. 

father said, " Call the man unto me." The man 
came in. Tobit said to him, " Show me of what tribe 
and family thou art." The man inquired, " Do you 
seek for a tribe and family ? or for an hired man to 
go with thy son ? " Tobit said, " I would know, 
brother, of thy kindred and name." The man re- 
plied, " I am Azarias, the son of Ananias the Great, 
and of thy brethren." This was satisfactory to Tobit, 
who then asked, " What wages shall I pay thee ? — 
a drachm a day and expenses ? ' ' This was satisfac- 
tory. The bargain was closed. 

Tobias and his guide soon started on their journey, 
and came in the evening to the river Tigris. " And 
when the young man " (Tobias) " went down to wash 
himself, a fish leaped out of the river, and would have 
devoured him." His guide said, " Take the fish," 
and he did, and drew it to land. The guide said, 
" Open the fish, and take the heart, and the liver, and 
the gall, and put them up safely." The guide after- 
ward said, " If a devil or an evil spirit trouble any 
one, make a smoke of the heart and the liver before 
the man or woman, and the party shall be no more 
vexed. The gall is good to anoint a man that hath 
blindness." 

When they were come near to Rages, the guide 
said, " To-day we shall lodge with Raguel, who is thy 
cousin. He hath one only daughter, named Sara : 
I will speak for her, that she may be given thee for a 
wife." Tobias replied, "T have heard, Azarias, that 
this maid hath been given to seven men, who all died 
in the marriage chamber." The guide responded, 
" She shall be given thee to wife ; and make thou no 
reckoning of the evil spirit ; for this same night shall 



TOBIT. 143 

she be given thee in marriage ; and when thou shalt 
come into the marriage chamber, thou shalt take of 
the ashes of perfume, and shalt lay upon them some 
of the heart and liver of the fish, and shalt make a 
smoke with it, and the devil shall smell it, and flee 
away-" 

They came to Raguel' s house, who was cousin to 
Tobit. When Tobias announced that he was son of 
Tobit, Raguel leaped up, and kissed him, and wept, 
and said, " Thou art son of an honest man." Like- 
wise also Edna, his wife, and Sara, his daughter, wept, 
but probably for joy ; for the family entertained the 
new comers cheerfully, and set before them plentifully 
of the best. 

Soon Tobias said to his companion of the way, 
" Speak of those things of which thou didst mention, 
and let this business be dispatched" Azarias did so, 
and Raguel was pleased at the prompt proposition for 
his daughter; but, like an honest man, said, " I will 
declare unto thee the truth. I have given my daugh- 
ter to seven men, who died that night they came in 
unto her ; nevertheless, for the present be merry." 
But Tobias said, " I will eat nothing here till we 
agree, and swear one to another." Raguel said, 
" Take her " The marriage was soon consummated ; 
the bridal chamber prepared and occupied ; the heart 
and liver of the fish burned, as directed ; prayer of- 
fered ; the smell drove the evil spirit to Egj^pt ; the 
wedded couple slept that night, and were well in the 
morning. 

Tied to a new wife, and devoted to a fourteen days' 
wedding feast, Tobias sent' his guide on alone to Ga- 
biel, in Media, to obtain the money, which was the 

10 



144 MARVEL WORKERS. 

chief object for which the journey had been under- 
taken. The guide was successful in getting payment 
of Tobit's deposit, and, at the proper time, Tobias, 
his new wife, and the guide returned near to Nineveh 
all well. While a little way out from the city, the 
guide proposed that he and Tobias should press on 
ahead of the wife, and make a little preparation for 
her reception. He directed Tobias to take in his hand 
the gall of the fish, and said to him, " I know that 
thy father will open his eyes." 

Anna, mother of Tobias, saw them coming, and ran 
forth to meet them. Blind Tobit also went forth, but 
stumbled ; and " his son ran unto him, took hold of 
his father, and strake of the gall on his father's eyes ; 
and when the eyes began to smart, he rubbed them, 
and the whiteness peeled from the corners of his eyes, 
and he saw." 

The excitement attendant upon the safe and happy 
return of Tobias, and upon Tobit's recovery of his 
sight, having a little subsided, it was remembered that 
the capable, faithful, and beneficent guide must be 
compensated, and judged that he deserved to be very 
richly compensated. They, therefore, made him lib- 
eral proffers. But this guide needed no moneyed com- 
pensation. He rose in grandeur, and spoke as fol- 
lows : " It is good to keep close the secret of a king ; 
but it is honorable to reveal the works of God. Sure- 
ly I will keep close nothing from you. Now, there- 
fore, when both thou and Sara, thy daughter-in-law, 
did pray, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers 
before the Holy One ; and now God has sent me to 
heal thee and Sara, thy daughter-in-law. I am Ra- 
phael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the 



TOBIT. 145 

prayers of the saints ; . . . fear not ; ... by the will 
of our God I came ; ... all these days I did appear 
unto you ; but I did neither eat nor drink ; ye did see 
a vision ; ... I go up to Him that sent me." 

Who or of what nature or rank in the scale of in- 
telligences was this guide, companion, and benefactor 
of Tobias ? He announced himself as Azarias, son 
of Ananias the Great, and as one of Tobit's brethren. 
Tobit said in reply, " I know Ananias and Jonathas, 
sons of that great Samias ; we went to Jerusalem to- 
gether ; nry brother, thou art of a good stock." He, 
therefore, was, or had once been, a man. His spirit 
name, Raphael, signifies a comforter, and his earthly 
one, Azarias, has nearly the same meaning. Obviously 
the two names belonged to the same person. 

Those modern teachings, which inform us that the 
appropriate action of the spirit world upon this is, to 
a great extent, put forth by associated bands there, in 
which there is subdivision of labors, suggest the sup- 
position that the departed Azarias might have been 
one of seven spirits, whose special duty w r as to notice 
the earnest and true prayers of the members of the 
tribes of Israel, or members of some single one of 
those tribes, or even of some subdivision of a tribe, 
and also the supposition that there may be innumera- 
ble bands of seven angels each, who hearken unto the 
prayers of earth's children, and present all true ones, 
as they " go in and out before the glory of the Holy 
One." 

This case is specially remarkable for long-continued 
visibility of a spirit, and of a spirit's power to act out 
naturally for a long time the offices of an embodied 
man. It gives pleasing hints as to the watchfulness 



146 MARVEL WORKERS. 

of departed ones over us, and of their offices in mak- 
ing man's distresses known at a source whence relief 
and peace may issue and inwrap us. It hints the pos- 
sibility that similar kindly angels, though all unseen, 
may go with us in our journeyings, and dwell with us 
in our habitations. It shows, too, that queer reme- 
dies and processes of relief may be prescribed for ex- 
pelling evil spirits and curing physical afflictions by 
beings more progressed than beclouded mortals. The 
doings, bearing, and utterances of this Raphael are 
among the most beautiful and elevating, as well as 
the most marvelous, which have come down from the 
ages when prophecy and spirit presence were both 
very frequent and very " precious." 



OLD TESTAMENT SUMMARY. 

We have now scanned the contents of many Old Tes- 
tament pages in the light which shone forth from the 
fact that the special inspirer of John, the Revelator, 
when he saw, heard, and described the scenes and 
teachings of the book of Revelation, was the return- 
ing spirit of one of the old prophets. 

Abraham and Lot were visited by such a "Lord," 
and such " word of the Lord," that they spoke of, and 
treated him or it, as being men and as being angels. 
Any interpretation of the transmitted account of their 
experiences, which implies that they were instructed, 
guided, and aided directly, immediately, and super- 
naturally, by the Infinite God, is distinctly irrational — 



OLD TESTAMENT STTMMAKY. 



147 



it must be the offspring of purblind credulity, and 
not of clear-sighted reason. 

Passing next to Moses, we found him under the 
tutelage of a God who was sometimes vexed with 
wrath, sometimes repentant of his own threats, who 
once attempted to kill Moses in the inn ; who was the 
prompter of dishonest borrowing from the Egyptians, 
and the executor of most unseemly vengeance upon 
the Egyptians, and also upon Korah and his rebel fol- 
lowers. Such Bible presentations of God, or the Lord, 
constitute strong reason for the conclusion that Moses 
himself had no belief that he was describing the In- 
finite and Holy One ; or, if he did thus believe, it 
was because he beheld a being of such splendor and 
power as made him suppose that the Infinite One was 
before him, and, like John, he was ready to worship 
the finite in all good faith and sincerity, as the Lord 
of all heaven and all earth. The strong indications 
in his narrative, that he was guided and controlled by 
some finite intelligence friendly to Israel, and hostile 
to that people's oppressors, render it a safe conclu- 
sion that Moses applied the terms Lord and God 
to some returning spirit; therefore we, at this day, 
need not regard the short-comings and lapses from 
consistency, fairness, and mercy, by the God of Moses, 
as attaching to the God of modern Christendom. The 
distrust of his constant co-laborer and brother, Aaron, 
and of Miriam, their sister, in the unvarying infal- 
libility of the instructions Moses received from the 
Lord, gives us the decision of more competent judges 
than any now extant on the earth, that that Lord 
might err. 

No Sectarian, Jew, or Christian (we here make 



148 MARVEL WORKERS. 

all Christians one sect, and all Jews another, as dis- 
tinguished from the holders of any other religion), — 
no Sectarian, Jew, or Christian will ask us to regard 
the God of that heathen diviner Balaam as the One 
Infinite Father. And yet his God is known by pre- 
cisely the same names as are used to designate the 
God of Moses ; and the two mediate Gods of these 
prophets were, we doubt not, of the same rank in 
the scale of being ; both were the ascended spirits of 
men. 

The God of Joshua seemingly labored a whole week 
to make conditions right for tumbling down the walls 
of Jericho, while Gideon's arranged to cull out the 
mediums of an army, and thus make a battery by which 
spirits could rout an enemy. 

When we came to Samson, we found the very ex- 
istence of such a rough foretold by one whose counte- 
nance was like "an angel of God, very terrible." 
Taking his career and character into account, — find- 
ing him scarcely ai^thing else than the murderer of 
Philistines and the consort of harlots, — it is a relief 
to find a way by which the psychologizing forces of 
some finite, " very terrible " one caused the genera- 
tion of such a man, and influenced him to be what he 
became. We welcome the view which fairly permits 
us to conclude, beyond reasonable doubt, that the 
spirit of the Lord which often came upon and ener- 
gized such a murderer as Samson, was the spirit of 
some finite Lord, and a Lord, too, who was far from 
being in full sympathy with the perfect Infinite. 

The humble, honest, earnest prayer of Hannah, 
aided by the hallowing influences of the temple, the 
ark, and the aged priest Eli, fitted her to become 



OLD TESTAMENT SUMMARY. 149 

mother of a very different child. Samuel heard a 
spirit voice in his early boyhood. In manhood his 
Lord told him tilings " in his ear ; " he was the finder 
of lost property for hire, and the foreteller of events 
— he was obviously attended by a kindly and good 
familiar spirit, and was the most trusted oracle 
in his nation. Such acts, and his hewing Agag to 
pieces, make it pleasant to believe, as we well may, 
that sometimes, at least, finite spirits were his in- 
visible helpers, and in the Agag matter his con- 
trollers. 

The prophetic influence which caused Saul to strip 
himself naked in public, and lie in that condition on 
the ground a day and a night, and the alternating 
good and evil spirit from the Lord which actuated 
him, bespeak operations which it is more pleasant to 
impute to finite beings than to the Infinite. 

The woman of Endor was attended by a familiar 
spirit. The Bible states that. Therefore the Bible 
proves that a spirit can be an attendant upon a mor- 
tal, and assumes that said spirit can give information 
and help to the person it accompanies. Consequently, 
sometimes, unseen intelligences can connect them- 
selves with living men and women, and be their 
teachers of things that are vailed from man's outer 
senses or his normal reason, if the spirits possess such 
knowledge. This is an important point. The Bible 
itself here admits that information may be imparted 
#to man from out the unseen realms by those finite 
teachers who are spoken of as familiar spirits. And 
who are they ? Or rather what does the word famil- 
iar properly import? Its first and most obvious mean- 
ing is, " an intimate, a close companion," or one of 



150 MABVEL WOBKEBS. 

the family. Its secondary meaning, " an evil spirit," 
has grown out of theological assumption, and is unwar- 
rantably restrictive. The familiar spirit may be of 
any quality, good, bad, or indifferent. Moses obvious- 
ly had one. Balaam, too, as clearly had one. From 
the Bible here, as in many other places, we learn that 
there existed of old, and was recognized of old, a pro- 
cess by which prophets and apostles may have re- 
ceived information from out the heavens, which yet 
came from intelligences far below the unerring One. 
As John was taught by a finite being, so every proph- 
et may have heard and received information from one 
of a like grade. At the request of this woman of 
Ehdor, or of her familiar spirit, the good Samuel was 
reached in his spirit abode, and in response so pre- 
sented himself to her spirit vision that she saw his 
form and his dress and. heard his voice. The return 
of a spirit, therefore, when called for under fitting con- 
ditions, is assumed by the Bible to be possible in the 
nature of things. Modern calls upon spirits and 
their return are in harmony with the eternal laws and 
provisions of the Creator of the universe. 

Passing by David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, andHeze- 
krah, because their histories furnish nothing w^hich 
specially points to the nature of the being or beings 
from whom they received instruction and aid, we 
come to the book of Job, wherein the familiarity be- 
tween God and Satan indicates that ancient concep- 
tion placed them much more on a par than ours doeg 
to-day, and raises the inquiry whether the God there 
named can be our God of to-day. In that history or 
poem, distinct mention is made, that a spirit passed 
before a certain man, and filled him with the tremor 



OLD TESTAMENT SUMMARY. 151 

and agitation which the near presence of spirits pro- 
duces in many sensitives in the present era. 

Isaiah and Jeremiah were but speaking mediums, 
repeating what they heard by their inner sense, or ut- 
tering thoughts outflowed through them by some for- 
eign intelligence. They give no distinct indications 
of the grade of being that used them as instruments, 
excepting that Isaiah, having seen " the King, the 
Lord of Hosts," feared that he should die forthwith; 
but since he lived on many years afterward, the fair 
scriptural argument is, that he had not seen God him- 
self, which would have been death, but had only 
seen some other glorious being, as John did, and mis- 
taken the person thus seen for the Infinite God. Fair 
ground is thus given for an inference from facts of 
Scripture here, that some lesser being than our God 
" touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire." 

The " Word of the Lord " came unto Ezekiel in 
" Visions of God." In that " vision of God " which 
was also the " word of the Lord," the prophet saw — - 
not God — but the queerest forms imaginable, and also 
something "as the appearance of a man" — (a spirit?) 
— and "the spirit" entered into Ezekiel when he 
spake unto him. This teacher makes his informant, 
or inspirer, " as the appearance of a man." All read- 
ers will be glad to believe that he who subjected this 
medium to the hardships and indignities he endured, 
is not placed by Ezekiel himself above something 
closelj 7 resembling a man ; and thus he teaches us that 
if we exalt his inspirer into the Infinite One, we shall 
depart from the teachings of the Bible. 

Daniel's teachers, too, were spoken of by him as 
men. One was a man clothed in linen, and another 



/ 



152 MARVEL WORKERS. 

was the man Gabriel. However high and exalted 
may have been the God whom this devout man wor- 
shiped, he informs us distinctly that those who fur- 
nished some of his prophecies, and expounded some 
of his visions, were spirit men. 

When we come to Jonah, we find the God who 
wished him to denounce woe against Nineveh was 
understood by this prophet to be so limited that he 
could soon sail out of his dominions, and also so lack- 
ing in firmness that compassion would induce him to 
forfeit his word. The argument from Jonah's con- 
duct is, that he deemed that God to be only some 
finite being. 

This summary of points either proved or fairly indi- 
cated by the writers of the Old Testament, as to the 
rank of the beings who taught and inspired them, 
shows that the Bible gives very broad and firm ground 
for believing that some super-mundane helpers and 
inspirers of Moses and other Old Testament authors 
had once been, like John's inspiring angel, men, liv- 
ing and acting on the earth, still influenced probably 
by their former mundane sympathies, and subject, 
more or less, to human fallibilities. It is no departure 
from Bible teachings to believe in the return of de- 
parted spirits, or to have faith that such spirits for- 
merly were, and now may be, w r orkers of signs and 
wonders through such dwellers upon earth as possess, 
the constitutional elements and temperaments that 
enable spirits to work either through or in co-opera- 
tion with them. Indeed, if we desire fresh waters 
from the more healthful fountains at which God's 
chosen people drank of old, we can get them only at 



OLD TESTAMENT SUMMARY. 153 

the streams which flow forth from well-selected mod- 
ern mediums. 

The terms God, Lord, The Lord my God, The 
Almight) T , and The Most High, were used by the 
heathen prophet Balaam, as well as by Moses, to desig- 
nate the unseen intelligence to which each of them 
rendered obedience. Such terms were then applied 
to any being operating from beyond the reach of the 
external senses. Perhaps as many finite spirits, each 
believed to be God by those whom they controlled, — 
as many such dictated the utterances of the prophets 
as there were prophets who spoke; yes, probably a 
much greater number. Such a view accounts for the 
repentances, barbarisms, and inconsistencies of the 
God of the Old Testament very rationally, and takes 
such blemishes entirely away from the One All-per- 
fect Being, from the Universal Father, and leaves 
him, as the heart seeks to find him, altogether Lovely. 

The foregoing brief sketches of prominent works 
and workers which have been met with on a rapid 
tramp across a continent of ancient Marveldora, do 
not present the reader with any new personages or 
events. The name of each prophet and of each mar- 
velous occurrence here described has for long ages 
been a household word with both Jew and Christian 
everywhere. But a continuous journey, having a 
novel purpose, prosecuted along new courses, and 
past nearly seventeen hundred of time's mile-stones 
(from Abraham, more than twenty-two hundred years, 
to Daniel, about five hundred years B. C.), has pre- 
sented points of observation which caused many old 
things to take on aspects never observed before by 



154 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



this traveler, and which may give new and instructive 
hints to many who shall peruse these pages. No will- 
ingness has been felt to question the truth or dispar- 
age the intrinsic value of any Bible statement ; but 
more than a willingness, a fixed purpose, has been 
cherished to look at each character and incident with 
as much freedom as was possible from all prejudgments 
and biases, and to subject Bible contents to the same 
common-sense and philosophical scrutiny as would be 
applied to the statements in any new book. Equally 
as firm a purpose existed to state frankly whatever 
significant meanings should be seen within the covers 
of the cherished volume relating to the occult helpers 
and inspirers of its authors. Unseen intelligences are 
now pouring much supernal light upon the world 
through the organisms of modern prophets, and the 
similarity between agents and processes of old and now 
becomes a matter of interest and of importance, if it ex- 
ists. If modern light leads to a discovery that many 
Bible marvels were wrought by finite beings, the same 
light shows that those marvels are amenable to fixed 
laws, and therefore may be taken in hand, and be pro- 
tected by the natural sciences which are now tending 
to their disparagement. Only within the ramparts 
of a faith, which makes marvels natural productions, 
can the Bible long resist the encroachments of science, 
and maintain a hold upon the world as a trusted oracle 
of supernal truths. 



APOSTLES. 155 



APOSTLES. 

Jumping over five centuries, from Prophets to 
Apostles, a new era is entered. Jesus of Nazareth 
has lived his life, performed his mission, and passed 
into the spirit spheres. His example, teachings, and 
position have very essentially modified in many minds 
the Jewish conceptions of God, their modes of wor- 
ship and forms of speech. The " Thus saith the Lord," 
and similar phrases, have extensively dropped out of 
use. Those appellatives, God, Lord, Angel of the 
Lord, and Word of the Lord, which were used by 
prophets to designate any unseen helper whatsoever, 
had given place among Christian disciples to the 
name of their teacher, master, and helper. Some 
angel of the Lord, not specially called for, sometimes 
gave them personal deliverance, but Jesus, Jesus 
Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth, became their specific 
substitute for the varied terms in use by prophets. 
They looked to, and called upon, one special, invisible 
helper who was known to them personally, and who, 
while visible here, had asked them to call upon him 
after he should have ascended. In his name, or by 
aid received because of their calls upon him, the 
apostles became apparent authors of many " mighty 
works." Two of them, Peter and Paul, were helped 
to the performance of many significant " signs and 
wonders." The history of those two men and their 
works is embodied mainly in the Acts of the Apostles. 
Attention will be given to these workers before we 
consider the doings of their master and helper. 



156 MABVEL WOEKEES. 



PETER. 

• 

Soon* after the departure of their Lord from earth, 
Acts ii., his chief disciples assembled "'with one ac- 
cord in one place." This accord implies that the 
assemblage was harmonious, a condition very requi- 
site to Lest spirit manifestations. " Suddenly there 
came a sound as of a rushing might) 7 wind. . . .And 
there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of 
fire, . . . and it sat upon each of them. ... They were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in 
other tongues" (in various different languages), "as 
the Spirit gave them utterance." 

The term "Holy Ghost" which is of very frequent 
use by the apostles, deserves careful observation. 
The chief question relating to it is, whether it signi- 
fied, as used by them on many occasions, anything 
essentially different from a Spirit Aura, atmosphere, 
or sphere, spoken of, felt, and sometimes seen collect- 
ing around and upon modern mediums, in immediate 
advance of, and seemingly as an essential prerequisite 
to, spirit manifestation or operation. The scripture 
language which defines its modes of coming, its influ- 
ences, and the effects attending its presence, very fre- 
quently indicates that it was palpable substance in 
some condition ; for "it sat upon each' disciple; it 
was like forked flashing flames; through it Jesus gave 
commands to his disciples ; by it they were baptized ; 
they were filled with it; Stephen, being full of the 
Holy Ghost, . . . saw the glory of God ; some persons 
upon whom disciples laid hands, received the Holy 
Ghost ; the Holy Ghost fell upon those who heard 



PETER. 157 

Peter; on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the 
Holy Ghost; and it descended once in the form of a 
dove. All such bases for definitions of Holy Ghost 
make it sometimes signify something material and im- 
personal. It seems to have been precisely like what 
to-day is termed spirit aura, which may be in fact es- 
sentially a spirit sphere or atmosphere composed of 
emanations from spirits embodied and disembodied, 
which sphere is, as it were, a nervous fluid enabling 
disembodied intelligence to connect itself with, and 
to control, matter, much as man's nervous fluid is the 
instrument by which his mind manages his body. In 
something analogous to such a sphere, spirits inwrap 
themselves for close approach to the external world ; 
something like this is needful for their control of man 
or matter. Such an aura may be their diving, their 
submarine, apparatus for penetrating, and for oper- 
ating in, our denser element than their own. The 
emanations from none but mediumistic persons are 
adapted to, and are ready and helpful for, such com- 
bination with spirit effluvia as constitutes fitting appa- 
ratus for the performance of eminently mighty zvorks. 

Susceptible disciples, being filled, permeated, or 
surrounded by the proper elements, spirits who had 
ascended from different nations, could "through them 
give utterance' to thoughts in their several earth 
languages. They did do so, or at least the equivalent 
to this was done in some way; because from Galilean 
lips alone, persons of fourteen different nations, tribes, 
or localities round about Jerusalem heard the wonder- 
ful works of God described in their several native 
tongues. 

These marvelous talkers were charged with being 



158 MARVEL WORKERS. 

drunk ; but Peter denied the slanderous allegation, and 
maintained that God had " poured out" his spirit upon 
them. This spirit was something poured out, and 
which fitted them for that most astonishing outflow 
through their lips of languages which they had no 
knowledge of. We are not designedly or necessarily 
controverting the position of any persons who main- 
tain that Holy Ghost is sometimes used to designate 
a personality ; but we do maintain that no common or 
admissible use of language permits us to speak of a 
person as being poured out upon other persons. In 
some cases, Holy Ghost meant an impersonal sub- 
stance, for otherwise the intelligent authors of the 
Bible would not have spoken of it as being poured 
out, and breathed out. It is allowable, and is com- 
mon, to speak of God as doing whatever his general 
laws permit to transpire. 

There was "one accord" — that is, there was har- 
mony — in the assemblv when this astonishing exhibi- 
tion of speaking' in unknown tongues was put forth. 
There is, perhaps, only very slight, if anj', ground 
for supposing that the writer mentioned the " accord v 
as a reason why such a marvel could be manifested ; 
but those who are familiar with best conditions for 
exercise of spirit power to-day, will not fail to notice 
the existence then and there of that important condi- 
tion known as harmonious or accordant. 

A certain poor man, forty years old, lame from 
birth, chapter iii., was daily carried to a gate of the 
temple, that he might beg from the people who were 
going in to worship. Seeing Peter and John about to 
enter, he applied to them for a gift. " And Peter, 
fastening his eyes upon him, with John, said, Look on 



PETEK. 159 

us." This procedure bears every appearance of an 
arrangement on Peter's part for a magnetic or mes- 
meric process — for some semi-physical impartation. 
The man looked up, hoping for a gift. " Then Peter 
said, Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I have 
give I thee : in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
rise up and walk. , . . Immediately his feet and ankle- 
bones received strength." . . . He leaped up, and did 
walk. The people, who all well knew the crippled 
beggar, were " filled with wonder and amazement." 

Peter then said, Ye men of Israel, . . . why look 
ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or 
holiness we had made this man to walk ? The God 
of Abraham . . . glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye de- 
livered to crucifixion, . . . but whom God raised from 
the dead. The faith which is by him hath given this 
cripple perfect soundness. 

Faith by Jesus was the restorative. Does this faith 
mean something which was palpable, and was either 
imparted or energized by Jesus still acting upon 
physical systems ? Or does it mean only an ordinary 
intellectual belief in the power of an absent one whose 
personal help to the physical is no longer available ? 
Possibly the language will admit of either construc- 
tion. But faith, when Abraham and Rahab were no- 
ticed, was found to be sometimes expressive of one's 
mediumistic or receptive nature and condition, com- 
bined with what was received and out wrought by 
means of that condition. Peter was obviously recep- 
tive of spirit influx, and was a good channel for the 
passage of non-personal spirit force, whether for heal- 
ing or other purposes. On grounds like these we be- 
lieve that closest adhesion to the facts of the case is 

11 



160 MARVEL WOBKEKS. 

maintained when the faith there spoken of is regarded 
as mainly a physical condition. Peter was right in 
his purpose to smother the idea that his own power or 
holiness had guiding influence in working the cure* 
He was little else than a physical instrun ent. Influ- 
ences from Jesus, or from him and his assoi late spirits, 
passing through Peter and John, and intensifying their 
own health-bearing magnetisms, brought the crippled 
man to his feet. The actual healers were invisible 
physicians. 

On the morrow the rulers, elders, scribes, and 
priests took notice, chap, iv., of this astonishing cure* 
They said to Peter and John, " By what power or by 
what name have }^e done this? ' " Peter, filled with 
the Holy Ghost ? (spirit influences or auras), an- 
swered, " By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth; 
. . . by Mm doth this man stand before you whole." 
The authorities, seeing the boldness of Peter and 
John, and also the healed cripple being by, a living 
evidence of the beneficent w^ork, dared do no more 
than threaten these men with punishment if they con- 
tinued such operations. Peter met them with the 
bold question, " Whether it be right in the sight of 
God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge 
ye ; for we cannot but speak the things which we have 
seen and heard." 

When these apostles say we can not but speak thus, 
they may possibly mean only that a sense of duty im- 
pels them on, as they naturally would if moved only 
by ordinary intellectual and moral convictions. Their 
statement recalls the words of Baalam, when he said, 
" Have I any power at all to say anything ? The word 
that God putteth into my mouth, that shall I speak ; all 



PETER. 161 

that the Lord speaketh, that I must do. I can not go 
beyond the word of my Lord to do less or more." 
The prophet here surely seems to speak of physical 
restraints, limitations of personal powers, and of 
necessities of involuntary action'. Probably the apos- 
tles were measurably under a similar control. Many 
persons in these days are listeners to speeches through 
the lips of their own bodies, witnesses of actions by 
their own hands, and conscious feelers of inflows and 
outflows through their physical systems, which them- 
selves do not prompt, and can neither direct nor cause 
to cease. Such experiences prove that the apostles 
may have had like ones. The forces of nature and 
the conditions of man sometimes admit such. 

Turning to chapter v., we meet with the account of 
Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who unitedly attempt- 
ed to practice concealment and fraud in reference to 
the amount of their property, putting only a part of 
it into the common fund of the disciples, though the 
requirement was for the whole, and asserted that 
what they had given was the whole. He was charged 
with lying to the Holy Ghost — to God, and not to 
men. At this he fell down and died. His wife, being 
charged with the same, also fell and died. The nar- 
rative carries the idea on its face that the couple were 
slain because of their deception and falsehood, but 
does not inform us who slew them. Nothing teaches 
us that Peter desired or produced such a result. Yet, 
when he had proof of the wife's complicity in the de- 
ception, he foresensed her death, for he said to her in- 
stantly, " The feet of them which have buried thy hus- 
band shall carry thee out ; V and she died forthwith. 
Seemingly he was conscious of the on-coming infliction, 



162 MABYEL WOBKEBS. 

but no indication is given that he was the author of it ; 
while the probability is, that the slaying force was 
passed through him, and he was accessory, though 
perhaps unconsciously, to that startling retribution. 
That spirits can, under some conditions, take the 
lives of those they control, and of others near by them, 
is not called in question. The first-born of Egypt in 
the days of Moses, also Assyrian captains in Hezekiah's 
time, fell before unseen destroyers. In each of the 
three cases a medium was in the vicinity, and was in- 
terested in, affected by, or magnified in the popular 
estimation by, the awe-inspiring events, and may 
have been an important, though unconscious, contrib- 
utor to them. 

The fame of Peter and John, as mighty workers 
upon the human system, rose to such hights " that 
people brought the sick into the streets, and laid them 
on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter 
passing by might overshadow some of them." The 
word shadoiv here must be significant of a substance, 
which, while imperceptible by the external senses, 
was sometimes mighty in its operations. The account 
implies a prevalent belief that undesigned emanations 
from Peter might cure diseases. So much of the sur- 
rounding atmosphere as should be impregnated with 
effluvia from him, might be rendered thereby highly 
medicinal. The overshadowing by Peter meant about 
that much to his attendants, and means that to us 
also, for we have received very significant intimations 
that auras emanating from some persons, including 
ourself, are, at most times, expellent of morbid prop- 
erties from individuals and entire apartments, while 



PETER. 163 

those from some other persons ordinarily intensify 
disease. 

From neighboring cities were " brought sick folks, 
and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and 
they were healed every one." Unclean spirits, harm- 
ful and distressing ones, who, taking possession of and 
controlling, or even lingering closely around mortal 
men, thereby, either intentionally or all undesignedly, 
producing sometimes insanity, and sometimes generat- 
ing, and often intensifying and protracting other mal- 
adies, were subject to ejection by forces outworking 
from Peter and John, so that the sick and the lunatic 
" were healed every one." Similar results attend the 
presence and operations of many eminent healers of 
the present era, and imply no special action of the 
infinite God. 

Because of such good works Peter and John were 
imprisoned. " But " — and here Old Testament phrase- 
ology recurs — " but the angel of the Lord, by night, 
opened the prison doors, and brought them forth." 
An angel of the Lord was, in the case of John's visit- 
ant, the spirit of an old prophet, and therefore, in 
this case, it is allowable to regard the angel as no more 
than a returning spirit. The power of spirits, when 
they can command fitting conditions, as they fre- 
quently can in the vicinity of some mediumistic per- 
sons, their power both to disintegrate and recombine 
even the links of a chain of iron, and also to move 
the firmest materials in the twinkling of an eye, have 
become facts well established in the minds of all per- 
sistent students of their teachings and doings. By 
such students it is understood that spirit chemistry 



164 MARVEL WORKERS. 

goes indescribably beyond where man's ever yet has 
reached. 

Stephen. In chapter vi. the reader meets with an 
account of Stephen, limitedly a similar worker to Peter 
and John. Around him appeared one of the rare phe- 
nomena of spirit manifestation. When arraigned for 
trial because of his beneficent works, his judges " saw 
his face as it had been the face of an angel." An halo 
around the human form perhaps always exists, and is 
sometimes visible to the external eye". The halo is 
presumed to be an extension of indwelling spirit or of 
spiritualized matter, beyond the physical form. That 
spirit or semi-matter is perhaps sometimes exclusively 
the man's own, and sometimes, in part, that of some de- 
parted person, who enters the man's form and mani- 
fests through it. Possibly it is sometimes only a dra- 
pery imposed by other spirits from without. Probably, 
in most cases, it is an outflow from within, extending 
the man's spiritual form out, and so materializing it 
that it can be viewed by the external vision of be- 
holders ; or perhaps the semi-materialization is a neces- 
sary condition of the spirit, consequent upon its close 
impingement upon and partial admixture with its ma- 
terial adjuncts while forcing its passage out through 
the material form. 

Peter and John are represented, in chapter viii., as 
having gone from Jerusalem to Samaria, where they 
found disciples, upon none of whom had the Holy 
Ghost yet fallen. " They laid their hands on them, 
and they received the Holy Ghost." The effect was 
so visible that Simon offered money if they would give 
him a like power of bringing upon men the Holy 
Ghost by laying his hands upon them. In this there 



PETER. 165 

was no great marvel ; but it indicates the probable 
opinion of Simon, a beholder of the operation, that 
the power to bring the Holy Ghost was a communi- 
cable one, at the will of its possessor. What he 
witnessed gave him no idea that its source was super- 
mundane, or specially divine, or that it was a person- 
ality interested in the proposed bargain, and therefore 
to be consulted. 

Philip. One disciple experienced physical trans- 
portation by unseen powers. " The Spirit of the Lord 
caught away Philip " from the eunuch's side, " and 
the eunuch saw him no more." The force which could 
lift Elijah into the heavens, or secrete his form, might 
transport Philip to Azotus, provided Philip was a 
medium. 

The first portion of chapter ix. relates to Saul, who 
will be noticed after the account of Peter is conclud- 
ed. In verse 32 Peter reappears. At Lydda he 
found one Eneas, who had kept his bed eight years, 
and was sick of the palsy. " Peter said unto him, 
Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole ; arise, and 
make thy bed : and he arose immediately." This 
case gives no indications of special arrangement of 
conditions for operating upon the patient. But at 
Joppa, in the case of the seemingly dead Dorcas, 
Peter put all the people forth out of the room, then 
prayed, and after prayer, said, " Tabitha, arise ; and 
she sat up." These conditions were prepared, under 
the guidance of either his external judgment, or of 
some generator of his internal impulses or impres- 
sions. Prayer may have been needed to make Peter's 
own condition fit for the reception and impartation of 
healing virtues. 



166 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Cornelius. The Gentile Cornelius, chapter x., in 
vision was instructed fcrsend for Peter. Before the ar- 
rival of messengers bearing an invitation to Peter had 
reached his abode, this apostle himself also fell into a 
trance, saw heaven opened, and was taught by the 
objects presented, and by instructions received in the 
vision, that God is no respecter of persons, but ac- 
cepts, from among Jews and Gentiles alike, all men 
who fear him and work righteousness. Thus a mo- 
mentous lesson was given to all bigoted sectarians, 
whether of ancient or modern times. Cornelius, a 
Gentile, was acceptable to God because of his alms- 
giving and many good works ; was susceptible, too, of 
an heavenly vision. An angel of God came to him. 
Beatific vision, therefore, was not the exclusive per- 
quisite of God's chosen people, the Jews. The very 
angel who came to Peter was either the same who had 
visited Cornelius, or stood in such relation to him that 
he was cognizant of what the Gentile centurion had 
seen and heard. This case, in which each of two per- 
sons of different religions was independently visited 
by an angel of God for the purpose of preparing them 
for a friendly meeting, cordial fellowship, and mutual 
respect, is very beautiful and instructive. 

Peter was a visionist, as many of the old prophets 
had been. This incident in his missionary life shows 
a form of mediumship different from what had been 
previously manifested by him, so far as we can now 
know his experiences ; and it gives him place among 
those who saw spiritual scenes, as well as among those 
through whom spirit healing was performed. 

Herod the king, chapter xii., arrested Peter, doomed 
him to sleep, when bound with chains, between twp 



PETER. 



167 



soldiers, and in a prison which had keepers before its 
door. There, in the night, " the angel of the Lord 
came upon him, and a light shined in the prison ; and 
he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, 
Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his 
hands." He was led forth and set free. Here was the 
spirit light — the spirit blow on Peter's side — the fall- 
ing: off of his chains like Samson's withes and cords — 
a going out through the door of the prison, and a 
passing by the keepers before it. With the medium- 
istic properties of Peter, as the basis of operations, 
with darkness and quiet around, all such things fall 
within the normal powers of finite spirits as mani- 
fested in present times. 

Here ends our notice of the marvelous acts of Pe- 
ter. This narrative shows that he nobly overcame 
the seeming cowardice which earlier made him thrice 
deny his master. Healing powers through him were 
very great. His devotion to his ascended Lord, and 
to the relief and enlightenment of the sick and the 
ignorant, give him high position among the world's 
benefactors. Through him and around him, the spirit 
world made most beneficent demonstrations to man. 
Courage, manliness, and unflinching devotion mark 
his whole course, subsequent to the ascension of Je- 
sus. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, 
which to us is nearly synonymous with full of in- 
fluxes of emanations from Jesus and the world of 
departed spirits, which he cheerfully and courageous- 
ly permitted to outflow upon man. He was true 
enough to let the spirit work unquenched. 



168 MARVEL WORKERS. 



PAUL. 

The most efficient of the early promulgators of the 
religion now prevalent in Christendom was a young 
Jewish lawyer — a bigoted Pharisee — and an earnest 
persecutor of the heretical disturbers whom Jesus had 
so indoctrinated and aroused, that they banded to- 
gether, as his followers and disciples, to carry forward 
his revolutionary tendencies even after his crucifixion. 
This young Saul of Tarsus — whose name, Saul, when 
translated, means a destrcyer, assumed, and seeming- 
ly of his own accord, a mission to put down these 
heretics in religion, and these disturbers of the pub- 
lic peace. He went from place to place arresting and 
imprisoning men and women. Getting from the high 
priest letters to Damascus, he started on a journey 
thither, intending to bring thence to Jerusalem, in 
chains, any disciples of Jesus whom he might find in 
that city. 

Wonderful are the works of God, or of the spirit 
world, both to and through the children of men ! This 
zealous, energetic, and educated young Saul, was, as 
his after life showed, constitutionally mediumistic. 
Spirits saw his susceptibilities, and, when conditions 
permitted, brought him up, as the mariner would 
say, " with a round turn." In the ninth, twenty- 
second, and twenty-sixth chapters of the Acts, the 
writer of that book has given three distinct accounts 
of Saul's conversion, all similar in general import, but 
differing in some particulars. 

On his journey, he had come near to Damascus, 



PAUL. 169 

when, at about midday, "suddenly there shined 
round about him a light from heaven," so overpower- 
ing that he fell to the ground. In his prostrate pos- 
ture, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me ? . . . I am Jesus, whom thou 
persecutest." Therefore a returning spirit called to 
him. The dazzling light blinded him ; it was above 
the brightness of the sun; he could not see "for the 
glory of that light." He was told by the voice that 
the course he was pursuing would prove an hard one 
— that he was kicking against something which would 
prick and wound himself — that he must go into the 
city and wait for instructions. The light had so 
blinded him that his companions led him by the hand 
to lodgings in the city of Damascus. One account 
says that Saul's companions " stood speechless, hear- 
ing the voice," while another says, " they saw the 
light, but heard not the voice." It is not stated that 
either they or Saul saw the person who spoke. Paul's 
constitution, temperament, and condition were such, 
that the impression made upon him was obviously 
greater than upon any one of his companions. He 
was the " chosen vessel " for the reception of most 
spirit influence, then. On him it produced a three 
days' blindness, which was cured by spirit action 
through another medium. 

Ananias. There was a disciple of Jesus, one 
Ananias, residing in Damascus, to whom his Lord, 
who was the departed Jesus, appeared in a vision, 
and said, Go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas 
In Straight Street. Accordingly, Ananias went, and 
putting his hands upon Saul, said, " Brother Saul, the 
Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way 



170 MAEVEL WOEKEES. 

as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest re- 
ceive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." 
" Immediately there fell from Saul's eyes as it had 
been scales ; he received sight forthwith, arose, and 
was baptized." By being baptized we may under- 
stand that he confessed to faith in Jesus as an in- 
spired teacher, and that he avowed devotion to him, 
and to promulgation of his doctrines. Soon his name 
— Saul, a destroyer— was changed to Paul, that is, a 
builder up ; and by this latter name he is known as an 
apostle, chosen, commissioned, and sent forth by the 
disembodied spirit Jesus, Paul was, apostolically, 
" born out of due time;' that is, was commissioned 
and sent forth bv Jesus after his ascension, and when 
he was but a returning disembodied spirit. 

Such sudden and thorough change of views and 
purposes within four days as Saul experienced, is out 
of harmony with the ordinary changes in bright and 
cultivated minds. There is no evidence that Paul 
did, while a fair presumption arises that he did not, 
make himself acquainted with the life and teachings 
of Jesus by any careful study, or by listening to any 
lengthened exposition of them. His deeper faculties 
than those of reason and judgment were brought to 
bear in this case : his spiritual perceptions and intui- 
tions were inspired to grasp, and read at once, the 
character and works of Jesus. Spirit influences fitted 
Paul for, and wrought out, the change within him — 
converted him from enmity to friendship. 

Some time, perhaps ten years, after his conversion, 
and when he had labored long and earnestly among 
the converted Jews, he goes among the Gentiles, and 
is found, chapter xiii., at Paphos, where there was a 



PAUL. 171 

certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, named Ely- 
mas, who withstood Paul and Barnabas, seeking to 
turn away Sergius Paulus, deputy governor of the 
place, from the faith these apostles were inculcating. 
" Paul set his eyes " on that sorcerer, and said, " . . . 
thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a sea- 
son. And immediately there fell on him a mist and 
a darkness." Paul, as conditioned then, was obvious- 
ly the more positive of the two men ; each of them 
probably was backed up by spirits. The more nega- 
tive would yield before the rays or forces from the 
fixed eyes of the stronger, and might be affected in 
whatever manner the stronger should dictate. Paul's 
setting his eye upon the man was a mesmeric process, 
probably intensified by spirit co-operation in its per- 
formance. 

At Lystra, chapter xiv., resided a man impotent in 
his feet, a born cripple, who never had walked. Paul, 
perceiving that he had faith to be healed, — that is, 
that he had such susceptibilities for spirit influx and 
action, that he could be healed, — steadfastly beholding 
him, — that is, fixing his mesmerizing eye steadily 
upon him, — said, " Stand upright on thy feet. And 
he leaped and walked." The subject being receptive, 
Paul's own magnetisms may have been competent to 
such a strengthening operation ; but if they were not, 
his spirit backers could unite theirs with his, and fur- 
nish any lacking force legitimately. 

Possibly our views will let us relieve the quarrel, 
chapter xv., between Paul and Barnabas, from its look 
of angry passion. Each mediumistic person finds the 
presence of some individuals helpful, and of others 
harmful, to the exercise of his mediumistic functions. 



172 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Particular persons are serviceable to some sensitive 
wonder workers, and baneful to others. It is easy to 
imagine that Barnabas was aided, while Paul was hin- 
dered, by the presence and auras of John Mark. Bar- 
nabas, on that ground, may have wanted this John to 
travel with them, while, on the same ground, Paul 
objected to him. For the promotion of the efficiency 
of each of them, and for furtherance of the general 
objects of their mission, they may have been pushed 
on by workers behind the scenes to such a rupture 
that they would gladly separate, so that Barnabas, 
taking John, would go one way, and Paul, taking Si- 
las, would move off in another, thus broadening their 
sphere of action and influence. 

At Thyatira, chapter xvi., a certain damsel, possessed 
with a spirit of divination, greatly troubled Paul, 
who, " being grieved, turned and said to the spirit , 
I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come 
out of her. And he came out the same hour. 1 ' It 
would be difficult to adduce clearer proof of any one's 
faith in anything, than the above furnishes of Paul's 
belief that some individualized spirit, and that spirit 
not God, was within the divining damsel, and speak- 
ing through her. Since Paul so believed, those who 
have faith that similar possession is experienced by 
many physical forms in these times, can quote this 
apostle as a precedent in that faith. If, too, it is 
believed now that turbulent spirits can at times be 
ejected by will power, and by commands put forth 
through mediumistic persons, those who hold such 
belief may adduce Bible proof that an ejectment of 
an intruding and boisterous spirit was performed of 



PAUL. 173 

old by processes seemingly like those that are now 
sometimes found successful. 

Paul's interruption of the gains which the master 
of this divining damsel had been accustomed to derive 
through her mediumship, caused Paul and Silas to be 
imprisoned. At midnight, in the prison, Paul and 
Silas prayed, and " suddenly there was a great earth- 
quake ; " the prison was shaken, its doors were opened, 
and every one's bonds were loosed. The prison- 
keeper, seeing the door open, was ready to kill him- 
self. But Paul checked him, saying, We are all here. 
There is no appearance that this earthquake was ex- 
tensive. The city magistrates in the morning calmly 
sent wwd to have the prisoners liberated, and there 
is no indication that the citizens had been at all dis- 
turbed or alarmed during the night. The above won- 
derful deliverance was wrought out in darkness, and, 
as in other cases, the power manifested may have been 
put forth by finite intelligences, raising a local earth- 
quake, shaking the prison, opening its doors, and 
loosing the bands or chains from the prisoners. 

Chapter xix. Paul laid his hands upon some Co- 
rinthian converts, " and the Holy Ghost came on 
them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied." 
This case illustrates a mode in which the apostolic 
Holy Ghost sometimes was induced ; it came through 
mediumistic hands, and having come, it caused its re- 
cipients both to speak in languages of which they were 
ignorant, and to prophesy. These operations are very 
like what the spirit influences of to-day often pro- 
duce. 

From Paul's body u were brought unto the sick, 
handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed 



174 MAHVEL WORKERS. 

from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." 
Power to charge many kinds of gross matter with 
healing or with controlling properties, and transmit 
healing virtues thereby to some sensitive recipients, 
is possessed not only by many mediums, specially so 
called, but also by many mesmerists who have no ap- 
prehension that disembodied spirits operate through 
them. What is brought to pass in subserviency to 
natural laws in these times was beyond question 
amenable to law in the days of Paul. 

The failure of the seven mediumistic sons of Sceva 
to control evil spirits by calling over them the name 
of the Lord Jesus, indicates that the name alone was 
not a very potential force. The spirit who* owned 
that name was not disposed to be a special helper of 
" vagabond exorcists." The faith of Paul and Silas 
in that name, — that is, their consciousness that their 
sincere call upon that name would bring to their aid 
power from him who owned the name, — that faith 
enabled and induced Jesus, and spirits in sympathy 
with him, to put forth their mighty and beneficent 
forces through these apostles, and thereby eject evil 
spirits and cure diseases. The natural philosophy 
which is now being taught by supernal teachers as- 
serts that our sympathetic utterance, or even our in- 
tense trustful thought of the name of any dweller in 
the spirit realms, reaches the person to whom the 
name belongs, and gets as distinct response as condi- 
tion and wisdom permit. More or less directly all 
mediumistic persons rely upon an appeal to those 
who are now designated their spirit guides and help- 
ers. The direction of Jesus that his disciples should, 
after his ascension, ask, in his name, for what they 



PAUL. 175 

might need, may have been, and seems to have been, 
in harmony with conditions needful to man's most ef- 
fectual help by the departed. From lips backed by 
consciousness that Jesus could aid, and would aid a 
fitting, a spiritualistic instrument, the call upon Jesus 
might make a susceptible apostle potent over even 
such an evil being as the one who made his medium 
leap upon, overcome, and 'prevail against the mimick- 
ing sons of Sceva, so that " they fled out of the house 
wounded and naked." 

No one will fail to be misled by Scripture usages of 
the words prophet and prophesy who does not give 
them wider application than they now usually receive. 
Webster, in his Dictionary, says prophesy means, u in 
Scripture, to preach ; to instruct in religious doc- 
trines." The prophet is a person illuminated, in- 
structed, inspired, and who teaches under inspiration, 
or under any influence from unseen intelligences. 

We read, chapter xxi., that four virgin daughters of 
Philip the Evangelist did prophesy. Either the word 
then was made to cover a diversity of manifestations, 
or the class of foretellers of events was quite numer- 
ous. Obviously these sisters would now be called 
simply mediums. Agabus, named in close sequence 
with Philip's daughters, was a prophet in the modern 
significance of that word. He took Paul's girdle, and 
bound his own hands and feet, and said, " Thus saith 
the Holy Ghost," or the influence that controls me: 
" So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that 
owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the 
hands of the Gentiles." That prophecy was after- 
ward fulfilled. Agabus was a prophetic medium, see- 
ing and describing the outlines of coming events. 

12 



176 MAftVEL WORKERS. 

Chapter xxvii. Paul's prophecies concerning the 
events of his voyage toward Rome, of shipwreck, 
of loss of ship and cargo, and of the preservation of 
the lives of all on board, and also of his own future, 
show clearly that coming events, in the near future, 
were sometimes discernible by his internal powers of 
vision. 

Chapter xxviii. By prayer and the laying on of 
hands, Paul w T as the ostensible healer of a bloody flux 
and a fever combined. Others also who had diseases 
came to him and were healed. 

When the landed passengers from on board the 
ship which was wrecked on the island of Melita 
shivered with cold on the bleak shore, Paul with 
his own hands gathered an armful of sticks, and put 
them on the fire which had been kindled. As he did 
this, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened 
on his hand. This viper, no doubt, was of a species 
whose bite or whose sting was known to be fatally 
poisonous ; " for when the barbarians saw the venom- 
ous beast hang on his hand, they said among them- 
selves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though 
he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not 
to live. He shook off the beast into the fire, and felt 
no harm." It is a justifiable assumption that, under 
ordinary circumstances, that viper would have given 
a fatal stab to any hand on which it fastened ; and 
yet it probably was invisibly restrained from injuring 
Paul. The same power which kept the mouths of 
lions shut in the presence of Daniel could hold the 
viper's fangs immovable on the hand of Paul; or 
by processes which coated, in asbestos, the occupants 
of the furnace could have steel-plated Paul's hand. 



PAUL* 177 

Peter and Paul are the only apostles which the ob- 
ject of this work brings under extended considera- 
tion ; and these two, so far as they are embraceable 
within the legitimate scope of this work, are very 
much alike. They are alike as to the kinds or na- 
ture of the prophetic, apostolic, or mediumistic works 
which they performed, and the ardor, courage, and 
fidelity they uniformly displayed. The chief doctrine 
which they each put forth was the resurrection. It 
was their mission to bear witness to that great central 
fact. Incidentally, as supports to and in confirmation 
and illustration of that, they often epitomized Jewish 
history, from Abraham down to Jesus, and having 
drawn their conclusions from that history and the 
well-known facts pertaining to Jesus, put forth ear- 
nest appeals for a general reception of their own 
faith ; also for repentance, and for the leading of lives 
conformed to the requirements of the faith by Jesus. 

Peter's vision, calling him to fellowship with Gen- 
tiles, taught him, and induced him to avow, a broader 
conception of God's impartiality than the Jewish faith 
had recognized ; also Paul's reading in Athens an in- 
scription to The Unknown God, led him to avow that 
he was declaring that same God, — who was " a Lord 
of heaven and earth, dwelling not in temples made with 
hands ; giving to all life, and breath, and all things, — 
making of one blood the men of all nations, and mak- 
ing all of us his offspring." In points like these we 
find these teachers transcending the limits of the 
Jewish faith of their childhood, and the opinions prev- 
alent around them. 

The signs and wonders wrought by and through 
these two men embodied the highest and most per- 



178 MARVEL WORKERS. 

suasive eloquence of their apostolic efforts. In these 
workings they were very much alike — both were heal- 
ers ; both ejectors of unclean spirits ; both visionists ; 
both prophetic ; both the subjects of angelic deliver- 
ance from prison ; both bold, ardent, energetic work- 
ers ; and together they were a par nobile fratrum — a 
pair of noble brothers — in the apostolic band, to whom 
the ascended Jesus was what Angel of the Lord, or the 
Word of the Lord, had been to the elder prophets ; that 
is, an unseen but mighty helper. Thus far the appear- 
ance to ourselves is, that all the other revelators yet 
noticed received, as John did, their special communi- 
cations and aid from some intermediates between them- 
selves and the Highest ; between themselves and the 
Jehovah of Asaph and Isaiah ; between themselves and 
the Father whom Jesus obeyed and adored. 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 

The Son of Mary stands by himself, towering high 
above all other personages named in the Scriptures, 
who lived a life on earth. We contemplate him with 
profound admiration, and with tender love and grati- 
tude. Whatever his nature, single or double, exclu- 
sively human, or a compound of human and divine, 
his life and teachings are precious to us because of 
their heavenly qualities, and the same have been and 
are precious also to millions of others, who have 
learned and felt the spirit of his life, doctrines, do- 
ings, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension. 

Whatever more than man any reader may be ac- 



JESUS OF 1SAZAKETH. 179 

customed to deem him, Jesus surely was a man, and 
has an histoiy as a man. It is only as such, attended 
by and working marvels, that he falls within the legit- 
imate scope of this work. We hope to free our mind 
from warping and blinding prejudgments, and to use 
common sense and the simpler principles of philolo- 
gy and natural science, as rigidly when scanning and 
characterizing him, as when speaking of any other 
portion of the Bible's contents, or author of its books- 
Four distinct, yet brief, biographies of him have 
come down to us, one from the pen of each of four 
evangelists, viz., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 
The first three traversed much the same ground, and 
have given substantially the same account, though 
with occasional variations and some discrepancies. 
Each of these mainly aimed only to be an accurate 
recorder of facts. John's education and mental qual- 
ities inclined him to be more philosophical and discur- 
sive, and to present chiefly such of the facts in the 
life and teachings of his master as would furnish texts 
for instructive comments. Tedious repetition would 
result from examining and commenting upon the ac- 
count of each biographer separately, and therefore we 
shall generally take in connection what they have 
severally said upon any point which may be brought 
forth for notice. 

Three personages, viz., Zacharias, Elizabeth, and 
Mary, had such experiences antecedent to and con- 
nected with the conception of Mary's child, as were 
deemed worthy of record by his biographers, and 
therefore claim attention before we come to an exam- 
ination of Jesus himself. 



180 marvel workers, 

Zacharias. 

Gabriel, " an angel of the Lord," Luke i., appeared 
to priest Zacharias in the temple, and informed him 
that his aged and barren wife, Elizabeth, should bear 
a son, who should be called John. " Whereby shall 
I know this ? " said the priest. " Thou shalt be dumb," 
replied the angel, " and not be able to speak, until 
the d'dj that these things shall be performed, because 
thou believest not my words." That penalty was at 
once enforced ; for when Zacharias issued from the 
temple, he was unable to speak. Spirit power over a 
susceptible man's physical organs was here manifested 
with great clearness. The spirit who operated upon 
Zacharias, Luke calls an angel ; but Daniel, when he 
saw Gabriel, and talked w^ith and was aided by him, 
calls him a man — spirit man. There is no conflict here, 
however, because the word angel often means only a 
messenger ; that is, any person or thing that is sent 
forth for a special purpose. A man-spirit, coming 
from out the unseen world, could with perfect pro- 
priety be called an angel of the Lord ; for that may 
mean only a messenger coming from bej^ond where 
the outward senses reach, without designating the 
nature or the rank of the messenger. The power 
which locked up the speaking faculties of Zacharias 
apparently pertained to a spirit that once had been a 
man on earth. 

The people about the temple, when their aged 
priest came out to them, perceived at once that he 
had seen a vision. This ready perception of the cause 
of his dumbness, or other change, indicates that they 
were familiar with the appearance and conditions of 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 181 

persons who saw visions, and makes it probable that 
the occurrence of visions was no uncommon event. 
Those times, like the present, were replete with angel 
visits to the abodes of men ; otherwise the cause of 
their priest's condition would have been a mystery to 
the people. The case of that priest is a good speci- 
men of prolonged spirit control. It continued on till 
after the birth, even wp to the dedication and naming 
of the child not yet conceived, or certainly through 
the greater part of a year. As soon as Zacharias had 
written what he could not speak, viz., that his infant 
son should be called John, " his mouth was opened, 
and his tongue loosed?' Deliverance from his dumb- 
ness was as instantaneous as its infliction, and he was 
forthwith " filled with the Holy Ghost," or spirit in- 
flux, " and prophesied," alluding in his prophetic ut- 
terances to the coming and powers of the yet unborn 

child of Mary. 

Maky. 

The same angel who had foretold the motherhood 
of Elizabeth was again sent, some six months or more 
after his first recorded visit to Zacharias, to a virgin 
at Nazareth, who was betrothed to Joseph. He said 
to her, " Thou shalt conceive, and bring forth a son, 
and shalt call his name Jesus." After having been 
magnetized and psychologized by this spirit's presence 
and annunciation, Mary hastened to a city of Judea, 
and there visited her cousin Elizabeth, whose six 
months' foetus leaped within her for joy at Mary's 
salutation, and who was herself instantly filled with 
the Holy Ghost, or spirit influx, and foretold the 
motherhood of Mary, and the nobility of her off- 
spring. Mary yielded to the influence of that hour 



182 MARVEL WORKERS. 

and place, and in rapturous tones poured forth thanks 
and praises for the mercy shown to her, trusting im- 
plicitly in the fulfillment of the angel's prediction. 
These persons obviously were all highly mediumistic, 
susceptible of being filled with the Holy Ghost, or 
spirit aura, and of being inspired and controlled by 
spirits. Both Zaeharias and Mary saw, and talked 
with an angel, and Elizabeth was filled w T ith the Holy 
Ghost. This shows special susceptibilities in the per- 
sonages selected to be the parents of both the herald- 
ing prophet and of his more eminent successor. 

In addition to those proximate foregleams of the 
coming Jesus, other prophets, centuries before his 
advent, had given forth utterances which have, and 
no doubt some of them justly, been considered as ap- 
plicable to him. The history clearly makes his con- 
ception exceptional in its processes, and his advent 
into life accompanied by marvels in the heavens and 
on the earth. Various constructions have been put 
upon the language used in the Gospels to either eluci- 
date or to mystify his paternity ; that language will next 
be examined. Perhaps Christendom, as an whole, be- 
lieves that the Infinite God was the immediate father 
of Mary's child. To us the gospel language admits 
of no such conclusion. 

Luke, in chapter i., says, the angel Gabriel, being 
sent to Mary, said to her, " The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee." Matthew, in his first chapter, 
says, " Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost." 
These two statements are the most distinct scriptural 
ones relating to the paternity of Jesus, and are all that 
will here be adduced. Both these writers connect Holy 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 183 

Ghost with Mary's conception, and Luke connects 
with it also the power of the Highest. Which of 
these, if either, did he regard as the father ? Was it 
Holy Ghost ? or was it the Power of God ? Power, 
obviously, is only an attribute of some person or thing, 
is not itself a person, and could not in any compre- 
hensible sense be spoken of as an immediate father. 
Therefore both the evangelists designate the father, 
if they designate him at all, by the words Holy Grhost. 
Did they mean by this a person ? Luke says, in the 
same chapter, that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy 
Ghost ; that Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. 
Did he mean to teach that in one case a female was 
filled with a male personality, and in the other that a 
man was filled with the same male personality, and that 
in each case that infilled personality was the Highest, 
the Infinite God? According to our best skill put 
forth to ascertain what Luke signified by Holy Ghost, 
we find his meaning to be such an aura as we have 
described in other places, which was in nature like 
what is known to be either generated within, or 
brought to and infused through, those mediumistic 
persons to-day who become inspired speakers and as- 
tounding marvel workers. That such an aura of 
heavenly quality surrounded and permeated Mary at 
the time of her conception, is readily and fully be- 
lieved. If she was then under powerful spirit influ- 
ences, we can admit Matthew's declaration that she 
was with child of the Holy Ghost, because we find 
scripture usage ascribes to that Holy Ghost, or heav- 
enly aura, whatever is done by spirits, either through 
or upon their mediums, while they hold them im- 
mersed in that aura. Jesus was begotten amid hal- 



184 MAKVEL "WOKKEKS. 

lowing conditions furnished by holy dwellers in the 
heavens, and therefore was a child of those condi- 
tions. No personality pertains to either the poiver of 
the Highest or to Holy Ghost, and therefore we must 
look elsewhere for the actual father of Jesus. 

Possibilities are almost without limits : spontaneous 
generations are marvelous. We do not deny — we 
hardly question — that inception can occur; by in- 
ception we mean the fetalizing of uterine germs by 
substances either absorbed from vitalizing auras, or 
occasioned by purely spiritual infusions. But obser- 
vations in these daj^s indicate that exception, or the 
result of conjunction of physical organs, might have 
occurred under such circumstances as will meet the 
descriptions of Mary's case. The nearer we keep to 
customary processes the more widely credible will be 
the indicated mode. 

A supernal aura may have been formerly, as it 
sometimes is now, an instrumentality by which an 
absolute unconsciousness is induced, during which 

7 o 

human physical organs are moved to join in coition 
by a foreign will. Some modern experiences throw 
illuminating rays back into mysterious chambers of 
the far past, and present the facts of history in new 
aspects. 

The words, "I have many things to say unto you, 
but ye can not bear them now," may be addressed to 
the reading public by any careful student of modern 
spiritual phenomena who is made a confidant. He 
hears narratives of surprising experiences. Though 
it may be lawful, it probably is not expedient yet, to 
do more than barely hint at a certain class of occur- 
rences. 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 185 

Facts intimately pertaining to, and which may be 
used for qualifying, the primal, innate properties of 
any one that shall be born of woman, — facts that 
may indicate the immediate source of power that 
determined the character of an Isaac, a Samson, a 
Samuel, a Jeremiah, a John the Baptist, or many 
another human being, — are too frequent in their 
occurrence, and too efficacious in their action, to be 
long kept from public knowledge after their existence 
has been distinctly and repeatedly proved. But 
perhaps the fitting time has not yet come for detail 
of specific cases. 

There exist facts which hint at, if they do not 
clearly indicate, processes by which the child that is 
yet to be conceived shall, at the very instant of its 
coming into fetal being, be permeated and endowed 
with more of the supernal than it would derive from 
the parents in their ordinary mental and spiritual 
states. There are facts which point to momentous 
possibilities within the scope of psychological powers, 
that can be put and drawn forth from spirit realms to 
act upon some human beings. 

Whatever may be its primary effects, we intend 
and we expect good, and not evil — benefit, and not 
harm — to ultimate from allusions like the above. If 
there exist unseen intelligences and forces, unrecog- 
nized by general observation or by accepted science, 
that may be brought to act upon us in the most pri- 
vate of all life's scenes, knowledge attained of the 
ways, kinds, conditions, and extent of their operations 
can surely be helpful to all who will make good use 
of the knowledge. 



186 MARVEL WORKERS. 

If either personal spirits, or aspirationally attracted 
emanations from the impersonal spirit sphere which 
enfolds us, can modify and improve the innate prop- 
erties of those who, through us, are to be our lineal 
successors on earth and in the spirit world, what 
more philanthropic, what more divine purpose can 
animate any man or woman, than to inquire, and as 
far as possible to learn, how the favoring aid of wise 
spirits and supernal auras shall infuse their hallowing 
properties and influences into the germs out of which 
our offspring shall unfold ! 

A morning dawn, however faint or misty, gives 
evidence of both receding night and of oncoming day. 
The world's alternating spiritual days and nights are 
long — are epochs in history. Amid the darkness 
and fogs of this spiritual hour, some sentinels on 
watch-towers believe that they see streaks of a dawn 
that indicate the rising of a day in which men and 
women will be taught vjhy the first and highest duty 
to offspring is, to beget them only amid and under as 
much divine influx — as much holy aura — as their 
aspirations can attract — as their receptivities can 
assimilate. Future time will witness more fundamen- 
tal and effective processes for elevating and spiritual- 
izing mankind, than are in use to-day. 

We cherish no presumption that we indicate with 
accuracy the immediate source or actual conditions 
of Mary's conception. But we are actuated by a 
belief that processes within the legitimate scope of 
the natural powers of departed spirits, over all the 
organs of some men and women, have been manifest- 
ed in this age, which could meet all the fair require- 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 187 

ments of the language of the Bible pertaining to this 
subject; and that no process, therefore, need have been 
resorted to which required the special help of God, or 
which was at all out of intrinsic harmony " with the 
established constitution and course of things." The 
agents, instrumentalities, and processes may have been 
marvelous, may have been selected in the spirit world, 
may have pertained very extensively to that world, 
and yet may have all been natural, in the broad sense 
of that term. Whatever the process may have been, 
the conviction in us is firm that it conformed in all its 
parts and appendages to the direct permissions of uni- 
versal forces availed of by finite though glorious intel- 
ligences, with no more help or hinderance in kind than 
man experiences in his ordinary operations for multi- 
plying his species. Eternal forces, unchangeable in 
their quiet on-goings, come one after another within 
the cognizance and control of humanity just when 
they are needed. When earth was ripe for such an 
one as Jesus, earth's children, the emancipated and 
earth-clad conjointly, saw, and had long watched, the 
ripening process, and in the fullness of time arranged 
for, and effected his fitting generation and advent. 
The established constitution and course of things 
meets all of man's absolute needs legitimately, when- 
ever the fullness of time for a supply has come. 

After their marriage Joseph found, to his disappoint- 
ment, that Mary was not a virgin. Matt. i. 18-20. 
Therefore he " was minded to put her away privily." 
It is not wonderful that he meditated such a purpose. 
It, however, upon a superficial view, does seem won- 
derful that the saintly Mary ajid her supernal visitant 
should have concealed from Joseph her condition, and 



188 MARVEL WORKERS. 

let him assume the nuptial bonds in ignorance of it. 
The justice by which he devised his own best course 
of procedure, bespeaks him worthy of juster treatment 
than he received. But the counsels of many super- 
nals are deep, their views are far-reaching ; and since 
we find them to-day very indifferent to this world's 
estimate of their instruments, and also very ready to 
further the on-coming of seeming evils because of the 
good that will eventually be educed from them, it 
was probably far-seeing wisdom and benevolence which 
thus permitted the just Joseph to become an intense 
mental and affectional sufferer. 

His agonies may have been essential appliances for 
fitting him to experience the dream in which "an 
angel of the Lord" appeared to him, and convinced 
him, through that permeating aural influx which 
made him sense the truth through every fiber of his 
being, that her conception was "of the Holy Ghost," 
and thus turned his distrust and sorrow into confi- 
dence and joy, and made him an abiding lover and 
faithful protector of both Mary and her prospective 
child. He complied with the angel's request, and re- 
tained Mary as his wife. His mediumistic capabilities 
were unfolded, perhaps, by his anguish, and through 
these, thus developed, he could ever after be a recip- 
ient of those supernal teachings and aids by which 
the spirit world should desire to guide and protect 
the nascent child. The arrangements all tended to 
keep that child surrounded and sheltered by free re- 
cipients of the Holy Ghost, or spirit aura. 

In due time the child was born in Bethlehem, and 
angel hosts sang glad songs over his nativity, in the 
hearing of shepherds who there watched their flocks 



JESUS OF NAZAKETH. 



189 



by night. If mediumistic shepherds alone heard the 
angelic music, this incident may not claim rank among 
the Bible marvels ; but, if the notes reached the ex- 
ternal ears of all who kept watch, evidence is fur- 
nished that supernal melodists then came into un- 
wonted rapport with earth. Soon afterward wise men, 
in a distant land, saw a significant star over Judea, 
and guided by its light, traveled thither to pay hom- 
age to a new-born king. Such an incident points out 
the probability that the spirit guardians and teachers 
of those wise men of another land were cognizant of 
the doings and expectations of Judea's spirit princes, 
and informed their own pupils or mediums in the dis- 
tant east of the marvelous conception and future 
promise of Judea's new-born child, and, by exhibiting 
in the skies a mass of star-shaped brilliant spirit aura, 
guided them to his abode. 

Because jealous Herod was seeking to destroy this 
nascent great one, whom the wise men and others 
were thronging to and worshiping, Joseph was warned 
in a dream by an angel of the Lord, Matt. ii. 13, to 
take Mary and her child into Egypt, and thus out of 
Herod's jurisdiction. When danger was passed, Jo- 
seph, in dream again, was instructed to take his fami- 
ly back into Galilee. 

History is thenceforth silent concerning any of that 
family band till, at the age of twelve, Jesus seated 
himself among learned teachers in the temple at Je- 
rusalem, where he questioned and answered them, 
and manifested such ability, that all hearers were as- 
tonished at his understanding and ans\Vers. Thus 
wonders hang thick around him whenever he is shown 
to us up to this period of his life. Thence onward to 



190 MARVEL WORKERS. 

his baptism by John, some fourteen years later, his 
biography is epitomized in Luke's statement, that 
" Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor 
with God and man." 

John the Baptist. 

The son, born of Zacharias and Elizabeth, in their 
old age, whose birth was foretold by Gabriel, is not 
mentioned from the time when, an infant of eight 
days, he was taken to the temple, till he began his 
ministry, when his age was probably about twenty-six 
years. The Word of G-od, or aural influx, then came 
unto him, and he preached unto the people in all the 
country about Jordan "the baptism of repentance 
for the remission of sins." He was bent upon pre- 
paring, and exhorting others to prepare, the way for 
one greater than himself; he was the herald and fore- 
runner of Jesus, and was drawing public attention to 
the son of Mary. His special mission was to baptize 
with water and to teach. Signs and wonders did not 
accompany him. He was essentially only a speaking 
medium. 

This son of Elizabeth was nearly an ascetic in his 
personal habits. His clothing and food were of the 
simplest, his abode was in the country, and he " came 
neither eating bread nor drinking wine," and there- 
fore was charged with having a devil. He probably 
was a fearless, forcible, and peristent reprover of 
wrong, and an exhorter to repentance, and to works 
meet for repentance, during four or five years ; when, 
because of having charged Herod with contracting an 
unlawful marriage, he was imprisoned, and eventually 
beheaded. His frank and persistent assertions that 



JESUS OF NAZABETH. 191 

he was not himself the great prophet and deliverer 
whose coming his people had long been anxiously 
looking for ; his unselfish commendations of Jesus, 
and his obvious desire that all the signs needful to es- 
tablish faith in Jesus as the long-expected deliverer 
should wait upon him, indicate that John was a true 
and unselfish man, obedient to the guidance and im- 
pressions proffered to him from the spirit world. 

• 

The Baptism, 

Jesus, because of his desire to fulfill all righteous- 
ness, — that is, a desire to comply with all healthful 
customary rites, — - sought and obtained bapfcisfii at 
the hands of John. Upon his return from out the 
water, Matthew says, he saw the spirit of God de- 
scending like a dove. Mark says, the spirit, like a 
dove, came upon him. Luke says, the Holy Ghost 
descended in a bodily shape, like a dove. While 
John the Evangelist, reports John the Baptist as hav- 
ing said, /saw the spirit descending from heaven like 
a dove, and it abode upon him. 

Either The Spirit of Grod, The Holy Ghost, or The 
Spirit, each in the form of a dove, was seen to descend 
upon Jesus then. Each of those terms was used to 
express the same thing. And what was expressed by 
them ? When examining the Old Testament, belief 
was avowed that any manifestation from out of the 
unseen, was of old regarded as coming from God. 
Were this spirit dove composed, as it probably was, 
of the same kind of spirit aura as the pillar of cloud 
and pillar of fire which attended the Israelites, ever 
hanging about the ark during the whole of their pro- 
tracted journey, — were it thus composed, it might, 

13 



192 MABVEL WOBKEKS. 

according to a common use of language in the Scrip- 
tures, be called either Word of God, the Angel of the 
Lord, the Spirit of God, or Holy Ghost, or simply the 
Spirit. That there was super-mundane power produ- 
cing and moving that dove-like form is very credible. 
The presentation was a beautiful symbol, expressing 
to Jesus and John the approbation of higher powers, 
who watched over and were attendant upon them. 

The account furnishes no evidence that this dove- 
form was visible to any others than these two medi- 
umistic men. Matthew says Jesus saw it, John re- 
ports that John the Baptist saw it, while Mark and 
Luke say only that it came upon him. Clairvoyants 
in our times frequently see a dove attendant upon 
some particular spirit, and frequently, too, they see 
one descending and resting upon the head of, or hov- 
ering close around an embodied man or woman. The 
spirit or Holy Ghost which descended upon Jesus at 
his baptism, we regard as identical in substance with 
the Holy Ghost which came upon Peter and Paul 
and their attendants of old, and which comes upon 
mediums to-day, and that substance was and is a 
spiritualizing and strengthening aura, outflowed from 
spirit realms, controllable and controlled by efficient 
dwellers there. 

The Temptation. 

Matthew iv., Mark i., Luke iv. Shortly after his 
baptism, Jesus was subjected to his great temptation. 
God did tempt Abraham in order to ascertain whether 
he could be relied upon as a medium ; and now Jesus 
was tested by Satan. But perhaps their tempter was 
the same. The different accounts of this trial furnish 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 193 

a few interesting points for consideration. The three 
writers, who notice the temptation, all place it in the 
wilderness, or out in the country. But why did lie 
go there? He was led up of the Spirit into the wilder- 
ness to be tempted of the Devil, says one. " The Spirit 
driveih him into the wilderness, and he was tempted 
of Satan," says another. " Being full of the Holy 
Ghost," he " was led by the Spirit into the wilder- 
ness, being forty days tempted of the Devil, and in 
those days he did eat nothing," says a third historian. 

Mark teaches that he was driven to this trial by the 
spirit that controlled him. Luke states that he was 
full of the Holy Ghost, or spirit aura, and was led by 
his controlling spirit. There obviously was a spirit 
pressure upon him to get him where the devil might 
tempt him ; a pressure which made his going a moral, if 
not a physical necessity. He u was led up of the Spirit, 
to be tempted of the Devil." This language implies 
that one intelligence led him into the wilderness, and 
that a different- one tempted him. The meeting may 
not have been sought — seemingly was not sought — 
by either Jesus or the devil ; but the spirit that either 
led or drove him out into some retired place was the 
seeker of it. The spirit, and not the devil, led him 
out to the wilderness. The same spirit it was in 
purpose, we must think, as the God who tempted 
Abraham. 

The fast of Jesus and that of Elijah were of 
equal length. Fastings nearly or quite as prolonged 
as theirs have been kept by several mediums during 
the last twenty years. These modern fasters do not 
speak of experiencing any annoying sensations of hun- 
ger, but generally believe in great clarification of their 



194 MARVEL WORKERS. 

entire physical systems, and a better condition for the 
reception of spirit aura and for more mediumistic 
efficiency as consequences from this imposed and pro- 
longed abstinence from food. They sense what Mark 
says was done for Jesus, the ministerings of angels 
or spirits to the needs of their physical systems. 
Statement is made that Jesus was " an hungered after 
the forty days," and this permits the presumption 
that he was not hungry until then. 

The Devil or Satan who tempted Jesus was prob- 
ably some spirit, perhaps a very good one; possibly it 
was the God who tempted Abraham, uttering in his 
ears such thoughts as human selfishness is very often 
prone to cherish and be swayed by when circum- 
stances favor one's acquisition of worldly fame, 
wealth, power, and honor at the expense of great 
public good, which a generous and self-sacrificing 
course will enable him to accomplish. The question 
to be settled by his temptation seemingly was, which, 
in the depths of his soul, he most loved,-— Self or Hu- 
manity ? After he had been tried, Matthew says the 
devil left him, and angels came and ministered unto 
him. But Luke hints that he may have been subjected 
to subsequent trial ; for his words are, that the devil 
" departed from him for a season" The trial found 
him such, that his testers soon started him on his 
philanthropic mission. 

Water changed to Wine. 

John i. Some poet has most graphically and beauti- 
fully said, that at the marriage feast in Canaof Galilee, 
" The conscious waters saw their Lord and blushed." 
The changing of water into wine without mixing with 



JESUS OF KAZARETH. 195 

it visible ingredients, without manipulations, without 
personal approach to the vessels containing it, seem- 
ingly calls for the direct exercise of very mysterious 
powers. It is an operation far beyond mere human 
ability, and justifies the imagining that vitality and 
consciousness were in the waters themselves, and that 
they reddened under perception of the power of Je- 
sus that was overshadowing them. But such im- 
aginings, beautiful and suggestive as they are, may 
lead the thoughts wide astray from the facts of the 
case. 

Thus early in our consideration of Jesus we quote, 
for it is significant and helpful to a knowledge of his 
sources of aid — we quote a question which he sub- 
sequently put to one of his companions, Matt. xxvi. 53, 
" Thinkest thou that I can not now pray to my Fa- 
ther, and he shall presently give me more than twelve 
legions of angels ?" We also quote from 2 Kings vi. 
17, " And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee 
open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord 
opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw : and 
behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots 
of fire round about Elisha." Were those horses and 
chariots either then first created and then first brought 
around Elisha, and that in response to his prayer ? 
On the other hand, were they not obviously already 
there, and visible by the inner eyes of the prophet, 
and known by him as his helpers ? There can be no 
rational doubt that he himself saw them before he 
prayed, and that he relied upon their assistance. His 
request to the Lord was, not for more help, but for 
the opening of the internal or spirit eye of his young 
companion, so that he, too, might see the spirit hosts 



196 MARVEL WORKERS. 

on which his master relied for deliverance. The hills 
round about Dothan were no less thronged with forces 
in reserve before the young man could see, than af- 
ter his internal vision was opened. The question of 
Jesus implies that similar helpers were ever held in 
reserve for him. 

Now connect with the foregoing indications that we 
all are ever living and moving in the midst of spirits 
— connect with that thought the following apparent 
teaching of the world's experience, viz., that by use 
of elements which can freely either be derived from, 
or are capable of being firmly attached to, only those 
human forms which are of such composition and tem- 
perament as renders them highly mediumistic, and 
that the most thoroughly and constantly mediumistic 
forms may give to spirits a firm grip upon material 
substances ; do that, and then we get a distinct 
glimpse of a way by which spirits, when a good me- 
dium is near by, can apply their chemistry and their 
processes of rectification to any liquids whatsoever. 
They teach us that all the elements of all earthly sub- 
stances are in our atmosphere, and that they can, under 
right conditions, collect and combine from that source 
such elements as will produce very many of our arti- 
cles of food and drink. We personally were once the 
filler of a phial with water, and corking it, and, in 
darkness, were so placed in relation to it for a few sub- 
sequent minutes that we deemed it then, and still deem 
it impossible that any human being had access to it or 
meddled with it. When light was let on, the liquid 
looked red, and, to the taste, it was very good wine. 
Then we received evidence that spirits can change 
water into wine, more conclusive to us than the state- 



JESUS OF NAZAKETH. 197 

ment of any party living eighteen hundred years ago 
can ever be. This personal observation qualifies us to 
give full credence to the actual change of water to 
wine, in the vicinity of the mediumistic child of Mary. 
We have now vastly firmer grounds for faith in the 
actual occurrence of just such signs and wonders as 
are ascribed to the will and action of Jesus, than we 
had prior to similar occurrences in our own presence. 

Exceptional Mood. 

In the Gospel according to John, chapter ii., is a 
description of a scene in which the seeming temper of 
Jesus was out of harmony with his ordinary emotional 
moods. When he deliberately makes a scourge of 
cords — a whip with many lashes — and with this 
instrument drives beasts and men out of the temple, 
and with his hands pours out upon the floor the money 
of the brokers, and overthrows their tables, he shows 
cause for a belief that he, too, as well as u Elias, was 
a man subject to like passions as we are." If he were 
so, his successful suppression of all resentful feelings 
amid most of the many aggravating scenes through 
which he subsequently passed, bespeaks a most tri- 
umphant self-conquest; while his gentleness toward 
all his personal offenders, and his compassion for and 
forgiveness of his enemies, raise him to a God-like 
elevation in moral power and benignity. Once more, 
before this notice of him is closed, he will be exhibited 
in action under the impulses of the same exceptional 
mood ; then, perhaps, more extended comments upon 
it may be offered. 



198 MARVEL WORKERS. 



Woman of Sychar. 

Near by a well in Sychar, his intuitions enabled 
Jesus to read the remarkable domestic incidents in the 
past life of a Samaritan woman, so accurately as to 
excite her astonishment and that of others round 
about. Psychometric readings of the past history, 
and often, too, of the future experiences, of individ- 
uals, are now very frequently made with such accu- 
racy as surpasses man's ordinary powers of perception, 
and give strong grounds for belief, that many mod- 
ern mediums can either read, or hear read, portions 
of any one's book of life in the past, and get accurate 
glimpses of some things that will be inscribed on its 
future pages. 

Healing at Bethesda. 

By a word only, so far as external observance of 
him could determine, when near the pool of Bethes- 
da, he cured a man of an infirmity of thirty-eight 
years' continuance. The sudden re-starting of chroni- 
cally obstructed circulations in human systems by the 
action of spirit infusions through mediums, has for 
many past years been very common both in this 
country and in Europe. 

Curing the Blind. 

On a subsequent occasion, John ix., Jesus made an 
application to the eyes of a blind man, which may not 
be in harmony with modern notions of delicacy and 
fitness ; for " he spat on the ground and made clay 
of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind 
man " with a paste made by mixing and rubbing to- 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 199 

gether road-dust and his own spittle ; lie then said to 
the man, " Go wash in the pool of Siloam." The man 
went there, washed as directed, and came back see- 
ing. Any student of modern spirit operations as- 
sumes at once that spittle from Jesus might be highly 
charged, and purposely so, with curative forces, which, 
when interblended with and retained by the clay, 
could be placed and briefly kept in close contact with 
the diseased eyes, and in that position could act chemi- 
cally in favor of their cure. The dirtiness of the 
process and seeming inertness of such paste, argues 
not at all against, but rather in favor of their having 
been suggested by some supernal oculist, who would 
be very indifferent to man's estimate of anything but 
the final result. We write under the conviction that 
Jesus, like all other mediators between the spirit and 
material worlds, was constantly accompanied, and, 
when needful, aided, by unseen intelligences. 

Control of Fishes. 

Fishermen had toiled all night, Luke v., and 
caught nothing. At the suggestion of Jesus they 
again put out their net, and forthwith it was com- 
pletely filled with fishes. Spirit powers over all 
animal life and action, when conditions permit their 
application, may make ravens and fishes alike their 
obedient servants. 

Cure of Feyer. 

Under the touch of his health-dispensing hand, 
Matt, viii., fever fled from Peter's mother-in-law so 
promptly that she immediately rose from her bed and 
engaged in household labors. Consequent upon this, 



200 MARVEL WORKERS. 

Mark i., people brought unto him all that were dis- 
eased, and them that were possessed with devils, and 
he healed many that were sick, and cast out many 
devils. Mark's expression is cautious, and not deci- 
sive ; but if it were applied to any modern healer, 
every reader would infer that the healer failed in 
some cases to effect a cure. Therefore it is a fair 
presumption from Mark's account that some cases 
were beyond the curative powers of Jesus. In Matt, 
viii., and also in Luke iv., the same scene is described, 
and there the language indicates that all the sick were 
healed, but leaves it probable that Jesus failed to cast 
out some of the devils. 

The Leper cured. 

Matt, viii., Mark i., Luke v. A leper humbly 
asked to be healed, and said to Jesus, If thou wilt 
thou canst make me clean. Jesus put forth his hand, 
touched the leper, and said, I will — be thou clean. 
And he was cleansed immediately. No external evi- 
dence is furnished by the records that this diseased 
man was mediumistically intuitive ; but his strong 
persuasion that Jesus possessed the power to cure 
him, provided he also had a disposition, brings up to 
the mind many known cases in which sick sensitives 
have acquired an undoubting faith that certain per- 
sons could cure them, provided such persons would 
but make an honest and earnest effort to do so — pro- 
vided they would resolutely say, in mental and emo- 
tional action as well as by word, " I will " — be 
thou healed. 



jesus of nazareth. * 201 

The Centurion's Servant. 

Matt, viii., Luke vii. A centurion at Capernaum 
had by some process obtained faith that the power of 
Jesus over diseases was equal to his own over the sol- 
diers under his command, who would go and come at 
his bidding. Having a valued servant sick with 
palsy, and grievously tormented, he sent to Jesus an 
invitation to come to his house, and heal that afflicted 
one. But soon after his messenger had started off to 
give the invitation, the centurion, awed by his own 
presumption in asking such a man to come to his 
house, sent friends to say to Jesus, " Trouble not thy- 
self, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter 
under my roof." The reply of Jesus, sent by these 
friends, was, " Go thy way ; and as thou hast believed, 
so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed 
in the self-same hour." We know nothing concern- 
ing the constitution or temperament of that centurion. 
He obviously acted from an internal or heart prompt- 
ing when he sent off his first messenger, and upon 
reflection condemned his own act as presumptuous. 
We feel forced to believe that he, in estimating Jesus, 
differed widely from most military men of his day and 
nation. May we conjecture that his knowledge of 
that healer was acquired intuitively ? That this cen- 
turion was himself an impressional medium? Jesus 
attributed to him a rare faith, such a sanguine and 
swaying faith as spirit workings within man generate 
much more frequently than does knowledge externally 
acquired by ordinary processes ; so that we incline to 
fancy that spirits prompted him to apply to Jesus ; 
also, that the sending of the message brought the 



202 m MARVEL WORKERS. 

centurion and Jesus into rapport, or stretched between 
them aural wires, on which the health-bearing emis- 
sions of the great healer were guided directly to their 
special point of destination, and produced the desired 
and designed results " in that self-same hour." 

Widow at Naen". 

At Nain the only son of a widowed mother was car- 
ried forth for burial, just when Jesus, accompanied by 
many disciples, approached the gates of the city, so 
that they met the funeral procession. Jesus went 
and touched the bier, and said, "Young man, arise. 
And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak." 
Language is generally used, both in the Scriptures and 
elsewhere, to describe things as they appear to be, 
and are believed to be. This young man appeared to 
be dead, was believed to be dead, and therefore prop- 
erly was spoken of as a dead man ; and yet there is no 
rational hindrance to the presumption that his was a 
condition of catalepsis, in which all the appearances 
of death were upon him, though his life was not gone 
out. Such perceptive powers as Jesus possessed might 
make him cognizant of the actual condition of the cof- 
fined form, and he might clairvoyantly perceive that, 
aided by an influx of spirit aura from himself, the 
young man's physical forces could be re-excited to 
their wonted action ; and therefore he beneficently 
sought rapport with him by touching the bier, and 
thus established a connection which conveyed his call 
or command to the smothered perceptions of the help- 
less youth, and awakened his dormant physical senses. 
Cases of resuscitation very like the foregoing are not 
unknown in recent times. We have been present 



JESUS OF NAZAEETH. 203 

i 

where seeming death had come upon a sick medium, 
when the earnest command of another medium re- 
called the departed spirit from the bright land beyond, 
which it had consciously entered, and was loth to 
leave. That spirit still remembers with joy its then 
condition and surroundings. It came back perforce, 
and has continued for successive years in its earthly 
tenement. 

Calming the Watees. 

Matt, viii., Mark iv., Luke viii. A furious storm 
arose while Jesus and his disciples were sailing on a 
lake; so furious was it, that "the waves beat into 
the ship, so that it was now full," and they " were in 
jeopardy." Up to this point Jesus "was in the 
hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow." As in 
the case of Jonah, so here ; the storm came on while 
the principal personage in the scene was asleep. If 
the mediumistic properties of that personage were 
used by spirits in creating the storm, the medium — 
in the case of Jonah and of Jesus too — was in that 
calm repose which was very favorable for yielding 
helpful instrumentalities to the actual agitators of the 
elements. If the storm was raised by forces depend- 
ent upon him, and therefore in some sense his own, 
the storm would naturally be in a degree subject to 
his command, and would cease to rage at his request. 
The alleged powers of hovering spirits, acting by 
thousands in concert, may be competent, when condi- 
tions permit their close contact with matter, — as they 
often do in the vicinity of best mediums, — to take in- 
stant control of winds and waters around a ship, and 
either agitate or calm them at pleasure. 



204 makvel workers. 

The Devils of the Tombs. 

Mark v., Luke viii., and possibly Matt. viii. Land- 
ing, at the close of that tempestuous voyage, in the 
country of the Gadarenes, Jesus was there met by a 
man who had his dwelling among tombs, because the 
devil, a legion of unclean spirits, had possession of 
him, and drove him into the wilderness. This band 
of malignant spirits perceived and felt the power of 
Jesus to dispossess them of their hold ; and as if all 
of them were but one person, besought him, saying, 
" I beseech thee, torment me not ; ' besought him that 
"he would not command them to go out into the 
deep," and asked that he would suffer them to enter 
into an herd of swine that w^as feeding in the vicinity* 
He granted that request. Power to dispossess a ma- 
lignant spirit, and even a band of such, from hold they 
have taken upon some human organism, and make 
them give place and control to the rightful possessor 
and better guardians, is often put forth in these mod- 
ern days; but the granting the ejected onesjpermis- 
sion to enter other congenial tenements has not else- 
where come to our knowledge. Swedenborg, a man 
of great learning, and of scientific training, was through 
many years a very clear seer of spirits of all characters 
and qualities, and a careful observer of the attractions 
and ways of the different grades among them. There 
is a class, according to him, w r ho u love things undi- 
gested and malignant, such as filthy meats in the 
stomach. They appear, some to the left, some to the 
right, some beneath, some above a stomach of such 
contents, because such contents are delightful to 
them." Their presence, he informs us, gives to the 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 205 

man or woman in whom they lodge and feed, " anxie- 
ties" and many uncomfortable mental states ; it gives 
them the blues. If the spirits having lodgment in the 
obsessed man of Gadara possessed tastes like those 
here described, one can well fancy them not reluctant 
to take up residence in swine. The desire of that 
ejected legion was complied with by Jesus, but they 
did not long continue to enjoy the luxuries of their 
new tables ; for, seemingly, their living tenements 
were so chagrined by the intrusion of such villanous 
tenants, or so maddened and phrensied by these unin- 
vited occupants, that the whole two thousand rushed 
into the water, and were drowned. Perhaps they 
were impelled to this suicide by the exorcising Jesus. 
But why he should incite them to such action, we fail 
to even conjecture. We see not why he could desire 
to harm the innocent herd, or occasion loss of prop- 
erty to their owner ; and none of our conceptions con- 
cerning devils makes them susceptible of any annoy- 
ance or discomfort from forced immersion. The motive 
and the object of that extensive drowning are mys- 
teries. Whether malignant devils, or irritated swine, 
or beneficent Jesus caused it, is all uncertain. 

» 
Forgiveness of Sin. 

Matt, ix., Mark ii., Luke v. In the chapters here 
named the evangelists have furnished accounts of a 
scene at Capernaum, which is eminently fruitful of 
instruction. Jesus was teaching in an house, probably 
some large public one ; for Luke saj^s, " There were 
Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which 
were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, 
and Jerusalem ; and the power of the Lord was pres- 



206 MAHVEL WORKERS. 

ent to heal them*' Such language makes it probable 
that there was then an uncommon gathering, in which 
were mingled many men of learning and public re- 
spectability, who desired to listen to what the new 
teacher might say ; and some of them, perhaps, de- 
sired to receive, and did receive, his aid in the cure 
of their physical ailments, since it is said that the 
power of the Lord was present to heal them. The 
room was filled, and there was, besides, a great throng 
of people about the door, so that when his friends 
brought a palsied man on his bed toward that house, 
they were obliged to take the sufferer up to the roof, 
and through that let the bed and man down to where 
Jesus was. Seeing their faith, he said, " Man, thy 
sins are forgiven thee." 

At this, certain scribes were soon "reasoning in 
their hearts," and asking themselves, "Why this blas- 
phemy ? For who but God can forgive sins ? ' " Je- 
sus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within 
themselves," and he asked them which was the easier 
to say, Thy sins be forgiven, or say. Arise, take up 
thy bed, and walk ? Then, deliberatelv, and in that 
critical presence, he proceeded, and made this signifi- 
cant declaration: "That ve mav know that the Son 
of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto 
thee, palsied man, Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy 
wav into thine house." Immediatelv the man arose, 
took up the bed, and went forth before them all. 
Language and action combined can hardly be made 
to set forth with more distinctness than the above 
does, that in the mind of Jesus, the healing of disease 
and the forgiveness of sin sometimes meant precisely 
the same thing. Beyond question, that heaven-illu- 



JESUS OF NTAZABETH. 207 

mined teacher found an inherent connection between 
physical disease and sin, and taught that the healing 
of the former involved and carried with it the for- 
giveness of the latter. This point will come up for 
consideration on a future page. — The instantaneous 
cure of a man so enfeebled by palsy that he was 
brought from his home on a bed, was so astounding, 
" that when the multitude saw it, they marveled, and 
glorified God, which had given such power unto men" 
We at this day can join with that multitude, and 
marvel at such a mighty work. 

Twelve Years* Issue of Blood. 

Matt, ix., Mark v., Luke viii. A daughter of Jai- 
rus, supposed by her relatives to be dead, was known 
by Jesus not to be so, and he took her by the hand, 
spoke to her, "and she arose and walked/' A more 
interesting case is connected with this. When Jesus 
was on his way to see that girl, a multitude thronged 
around him, and in the crowd was a woman who pri- 
vately touched his garment, and thus drew into her- 
self healing properties from him. He felt the outflow, 
felt a loss, and asked who touched him. because he 
perceived that virtue had gone out from his system. 
Though seemingly unwilled to its mission, the virtue 
imbibed by her healed the woman's twelve years' issue 
of blood. Her faith saved her — a faith, we judge, 
born of her mecliumistic susceptibilities, of her intui- 
tions, and which could spring into being only in per- 
sons whom spirit healing aura could permeate, cleanse, 
and renovate. 

14 



208 marvel workers, 

Endowing the Twelve Apostles. 

Matt, x., Mark vi., Luke ix. Jesus called around 
him twelve men " whom he would," and designated 
them as special friends, witnesses, helpers, and apos- 
tles. He gave to each of these power against unclean 
spirits, to cast them out; and to heal all manner of 
sickness, and all manner of disease. Thus endowed, 
he sent them forth to exercise their new gifts fre- 
quently and widely as fitting conditions should per- 
mit, especially among the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel. His charge to them was, " Go preach, saying, 
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, 
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils." 
The coming of the kingdom of heaven, and the heal- 
ing of physical diseases, are here presented in such 
connection as suggests the same thought as came up 
when Jesus defined a cure of palsy to be a forgiveness 
of sin. Mark's language possibly indicates some pe- 
culiarity in the force which drew these men together, 
at the time when they received special powers, and 
were constituted missionaries. 

" He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto 
him ivhom he would, and they came unto him." Such 
language would be applicable if, in fact, Jesus went 
forth to the mountain alone, and there, by wishes ei- 
ther unexpressed or uttered, induced these men, wher- 
ever situated at the time, to turn their steps toward 
him, and meet at his side. Cases in which mediums 
desire, and especially those in which they request their 
controlling spirits to procure, the presence of other 
specified mediumistic persons, are very common and 
successful now, and the above language of Mark per- 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 209 

mits a conjecture that the apostles may have been 
summoned to their special consecration either by mag- 
netic attractions or spirit messengers purposely sent 
forth by Jesus. The susceptibility of each one in a 
band of twelve persons to receive and be able to ex- 
ercise extraordinary healing powers would not ordi- 
narily exist unless selection was made when calling 
them together. Inference from the experience of 
magnetic operators in promiscuous assemblages, and 
that of persons who operate specially for mediumistic 
development, indicates, that out- of twelve persons 
taken at random, not more than half could be percep- 
tibly either psychologized or endowed with any new 
powers ; yet each of the twelve operated upon by 
Jesus became an healer of disease. This result indi- 
cates that these men were lesser mediums, gravitating 
to and being unfolded by a greater. Thus energized, 
these chosen ones " went out and preached that men 
should repent ; and they cast out many devils, and 
anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed 

them." 

Lazarus. 

John xL The case of Lazarus, who is believed by 
a large part of Christendom to have actually died, 
and subsequently been restored to life by Jesus, pos- 
sesses much interest. It is so striking that some won- 
der is felt that neither of the three reporters aiming 
specially to present the marvelous works of Jesus, 
made any mention of it. John alone describes it. 

" When Jesus heard " that Lazarus was sick, u he 
said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory 
of God, that the Son of God may be glorified there- 
by." Perception of the sequel by Jesus while Laza- 



210 MARVEL WOBKEBS. 

rus was yet living deserves remembrance and applica- 
tion, too, in any fair interpretation of the actual con- 
dition of the buried form. The sickness "is not unto 
death " he said in advance. Therefore any interpre- 
tation of his subsequent words, which makes them 
mean that Lazarus was in any condition beyond a deep 
cataleptic sleep, makes Jesus at fault in his prophetic 
perception of the result, impeaches his reliability as a 
prophet. After abiding two days where he was when 
news of the sickness of this friend reached him, Jesus 
said, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, and I go that I 
may awake him out of sleep. His disciples replied, 
Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. . . . Then said 
Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." 

Obviously his own perception of the condition of 
his friend was one that he elected to term sleep ; but 
that word failing to convey to his disciples the pecu- 
liar nature and depth of that sleep, he, to meet their 
comprehension why a need existed for his immediate 
return into Judea, where his life was sought, adapted 
his words to the appearance of the case, and said, as 
any person not interiorly illumined would have done, 
" Lazarus is dead." This was correct enough, be- 
cause the man appeared dead to every external be- 
holder. Jesus foresaw that the sickness would not 
be fatal, and preferred to speak, and did speak, of the 
breathless man as being merely asleep, until an ex- 
pression adapted to appearances was found needful for 
explaining to his disciples that he was about to start 
for an house of seeming bereavement and positive 
mourning. Soon after his arrival at the home of 
Lazarus, " he groaned in spirit, and was troubled, and 
said, Where have ye laid him ? Jesus wept, and again 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 211 

groaning in himself, he cometh to the grave." . . . 
There, before his mighty work was seemingly at- 
tempted, " Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, 
I thank thee that thou hast heard me." He felt con- 
scious of indwelling power to awaken the deep sleep- 
er, thanked God for the feeling, and then he cried 
with a loud voice, " Lazarus, come forth ; and at once 
he that was dead came forth," dead only in the appre- 
hension of all the external perceptives of relatives and 
friends. 

Our perception now of the condition of Lazarus 
makes it an hard one of suspended animation, a sleep 
of deepest depth, but not unto death, as Jesus foresaw 
that it would not be. The word hard is applied to it 
because observation has frequently seen mediums ex- 
ceedingly depressed and anguished, just prior to the 
drafts upon their vitality, which the putting forth of 
extraordinary mediumistic force required. Jesus both 
wept and groaned, and therefore obviously suffered 
intensely from some cause, and this, ostensibly, in the 
same manner as mediums of to-day do when their 
controllers are drawing from their innermost foun- 
tains of mediumistic force, preparatory to the require- 
ments of a great emergency. His tears and anguish 
may have been induced partly by his kindly sympa- 
thies for the mourning sisters ; but when his fore- 
knowledge that the case was not one of death is 
considered in connection with his sufferings, some 
additional cause seems needful to account for their 
intensity. Remember the complete prostration of 
Samson, when he had just slain a thousand men un- 
der the sway of the Spirit of the Lord ; remember 
that the soul of Jesus was exceeding sorrowful, even 



212 MAHYEL WOKKEBS. 

unto death,, just before the trying scenes attend* 
ing his close of life had emerged to external vision ; 
and remember, also, that spirit mediums to-day are 
racked with sorrows and anguish just prior to ex- 
traordinary exactions upon their inherent forces ; and 
then the probability arises that the tears and groans 
of Jesus were extorted by such suctions from his own 
vitality as would give to his voice loudness enough, 
penetration enough, to enter an ear so deadened. 

Martha's anticipation that offensive odors would 
come from out the tomb if it were opened, indicates 
that the existing atmospheric temperature and other 
conditions would naturally have vigorously com- 
menced the work of decomposition if the man actu- 
ally died when he ceased to breathe externally. But 
no mention is made that results conformed to her ex- 
pectations, and can any one suppose that they did ? 
Hardly. Any argument that either hunger or lack of 
air would have brought death to a cataleptic in four 
clays can have no force, because during such a sleep 
the spiritual forces sustain the hold of animal life upon 
the body, which forces obtain their nourishment from 
spirit aura that is nearly or quite as abundant and as 
free in the closed and buried coffin as in the open air. 
The narrative, as a whole, shows clearly that if the 
supposed death of Lazarus was positively death, Jesus 
was mistaken as a prophetic seer when he declared 
that the sickness was not unto death, and that he was 
going to awake Lazarus out of sleep. 

Multiplying Loaves and Fishes. 

Matt, xiv., Mark vi., Luke ix., John vi. Jesus 
healed the sick among five thousand men, besides the 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 213 

women and children ; and when it was evening, lie 
made his disciples set before that vast multitude all 
the food they had at command, which was only five 
barley loaves and two small fishes. This multitude 
ate to the full from that small spread, and there was 
much left unconsumed. Modern oracles and observa- 
tion teach that sometimes spirits can and do either 
procure from a distance or manufacture articles of 
food for man out of elements, which they, invisibly to 
us, gather up and manipulate. 

Walking on Water. 

On that same night the disciples were on board ship 
" in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves," and 
Jesus came walking to them on the water. The ar- 
dent Peter stepped overboard, and, walking on the 
water, went to Jesus ; but the strong wind soon 
shook his faith, and the disciple began to sink. Jesus 
put forth his hand, held him up, and led him on ship- 
board. Power on the part of spirits to make matter 
more or less heavy at their option has been many 
times proved to exist by testing it with steelyards and 
scales. No doubt they gave levitation to the body of 
Jesus when he walked upon the water that night, and 
to Peter's also, until his own agitation and consequent 
loss of good mediumistic condition loosened their hold 

upon him. 

The Transfiguration. 

Matt, xvii., Mark ix., Luke ix. The transfigura- 
tion of Jesus on the mount is described in the follow- 
ing passages : " His face did shine as the sun, and his 
raiment was Avhite as the light. His raiment became 
shining, exceeding white as snow. The fashion of his 



214 MARVEL WORKERS. 

countenance was altered, and his raiment was white 
and glistening. And there talked with him two men, 
which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, 
and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish 
at Jerusalem. . . . The disciples who were then 
with Jesus w r ere heavy with sleep ; and when they 
were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men 
that stood with him." The brilliant radiance on the 
face of Jesus, and the glory in which Moses and Eiias 
appeared, may or may not have been something un- 
usual around them as spirits. The inner eyes of Pe- 
ter, James, and John may then have been unusually 
opened to behold spirit forms and brilliancies, and may 
have beheld only permanent ones, as Elisha's servant 
probably did when he saw the shining horses and char- 
iots on the hills of Dothan. 

Returning Spirits. 

The appearance of the spirits of two men, the one 
of w r hdm had been dead more than fourteen hundred, 
and the other more than eight hundred years, and in 
appearance so palpable that they were both seen and 
heard by three witnesses, Peter, James, and John, 
proves that the grave, in those former times, was not 
a bourn from beyond which no traveler could return. 
These heavenly visitants of Jesus, who then talked 
with him about the death he was, on some future day, 
to undergo at Jerusalem, were surely spirits who had 
once been men. A possible way of return to earth 
existed and was traversed long ago, so that the return 
of our loved ones is sanctioned by the example of emi- 
nent ancient prophets. 



jesus of nazareth. 215 

Unbelief. 

Matt, xvii., Mark ix., Luke ix. Shortly after their 
descent from the mount on which the glorious trans- 
figuration had been manifested, the father of a dumb 
lunatic boy, who had previously taken the child to 
some of the disciples, and failed to get help through 
them, now applied to Jesus, who soon rebuked the 
possessing spirit with such potency that he departed 
out of the child. This case teaches that the disciples 
sometimes made unsuccessful efforts to heal, and 
therefore that the forces subject to their command, or 
working in alliance with them, were not omnipotent. 
Apostolic powers and unseen helpers of the apostles 
did not always command success. The failures of his 
disciples Jesus imputed to the limitations of their faith, 
or to their unbelief. We can hardly suppose that their 
mental state was such as we to-day should designate 
by the term unbelief. Obviously they must have had 
mental convictions that healing virtues sometimes 
went forth from their organisms, and that Jesus and 
God were their helpers. They were not unbelievers, 
according to the modern usage of such a word. Per- 
haps, and probably, the unbelief of which Jesus spoke 
was their lack of mediumistic states or conditions 
equal to the requirements for success in that particu- 
lar case, which was an obstinate and severe one. 

" How long is it ago," asked Jesus, " since this 
came unto him ? " " Of a child," replied the father, 
who added, " that it hardly departed from him." The 
obsession, therefore, was chronic and continuous, also 
the besetting spirit w r as powerful and malicious : 
"For," says the father, "wheresoever he taketh 



216 MARVEL WORKERS. 

him, he teareth him ; and he foameth, and gnasheth 
with his teeth, and pineth away ; . . . have compas- 
sion on us, and help us." Yes, " Jesus said, ... If 
thou canst believe. . . . The father . . . cried out, 
I believe ; help thou mine unbelief " — make my faith 
still stronger and more efficient than it is. Jesus then 
" rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou 
dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, 
and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and 
rent him sore, and came out of him, and the child was 
as one dead, insomuch that many said, He is dead." 
Such a case required extraordinary dispossessing force, 
more than pertained to the disciples at their trials, but 
not more than was put forth through Jesus when he 
uttered his majestic command. 

The disciples soon afterward asked Jesus privately 
" Why could not we cast him out ? ' Jesus answered, 
" This kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and 
fasting." Whether he meant the kind or character 
of obsessing spirit, or the kind or quantum and quality 
of the operating force, the teaching is essentially the 
same. The needful power could be obtained only 
through prayer and fasting. May we not rationally 
interpret those words as meaning that the human op- 
erator's physical system must be as extensively as possi- 
ble depleted of all unhealthy animal forces, and their 
place be supplied by invoked spiritual ones, before a 
spirit thus powerful and ugly can be overmastered ? 
We think we niay, and therefore may interpret Jesus 
as here meaning, by unbelief and by little faith, that 
condition of mind and body conjoined, which failed to 
furnish supernal intelligences of high benevolence, 
with that amount and quality of mediumistic aura 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 217 

which this special case demanded for successful eject- 
ment. 

Blasting the Fig Tree. 

Matt, xxi., Mark xi. One morning, when hun- 
gry, Jesus went up to " a fig tree, and found nothing 
but leaves." And he said to it, " Let no fruit grow 
on thee henceforward forever — no man eat fruit of 
thee hereafter forever." " The time of figs was not 
yet." On the next morning the disciples " saw that 
fig tree dried up from the roots." That blasting of a 
tree was a marked performance even among his mar- 
velous actions. It stands by itself, and excites high 
wonderment. Any commendable motive to it, ex- 
cepting the general one of manifesting extraordinary 
power, seems wanting. His emanations generally 
went forth on missions of healing, of physical and 
mental relief, of moral and religious instruction, of 
salvation from danger and fear of drowning by calm- 
ing winds and waves, and of other acts of clemency 
toward human beings. But here the vegetable life 
of the fig tree was sapped or poisoned for no other 
indicated reason, than that it did not, even out of the 
natural season for ripened figs, furnish a breakfast to 
an hungry man. Since the subsequent deportment 
of Jesus in the temple that same morning, indicates 
a second occasion on which a resentful mood seemed 
to control him, there presses forth for utterance a 
query whether possibly hunger acted then upon Je- 
sus, as it perhaps has sometimes done upon an unrea- 
soning hungry boy — that' is, drawn out malediction 
upon the unconscious tree, because it happened to 
have no fruit on it, when he in hunger sought for 



218 MARVEL WORKERS. 

some ? Did disappointment excite anger even in 
him ? 

From that scene Jesus went to the city and into the 
temple, where he proceeded u to cast out them that sold 
and bought there, and overthrew the tables of the 
money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 
and would not suffer that any man should carry any 
vessel through the temple." Can it be that some pas- 
sionate spirit obtained temporary sway over Jesus on 
that morning, when the failure of the fig tree to fur- 
nish him food, and the traffickers in the temple, seem- 
ingly, at least, metamorphosed his character ? Luke 
tells us that at the close of the temptation, the devil 
" departed from him for a season ; ' and we can, for 
ourselves, admit as plausible the supposition that 
some spirit of temper quite foreign to that of Jesus 
and his usual helpers, intruded his influence very 
forcibly on the morning of those exceptional outflows 
from the form of Jesus. 

Satan's Work upon Judas and Peter. 

Luke xxii. y John xiii. " Then entered Satan into 
Judas Iscariot. The devil having now put it into the 
heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him." " The Lord 
said to Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to 
have you, that he may sift 3^011 as wheat." These 
statements carry the idea that something more than 
the mere natural inclinations of their own minds 
would prompt Judas to treachery and Peter to denial — 
that some personal Satan would bring influences to bear 
upon them. Their organisms were impelled on to the 
commission of such acts as afterward caused one to 
commit suicide and the other to weep bitterly. We 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 219 

hope, and suspect from the fact that he was one of the 
chosen twelve, that Judas possessed a better side than 
history has exhibited to the world. We get no 
glimpse of it, however, and can not hint at its quali- 
ties. Simon Peter stands before us in bolder relief. 
His attachment to Jesus wears the appearance of 
having been sincere and strong. He had courage too. 
He was no falterer from personal timidity, nor from 
inhering weakness. His after life renders it im- 
probable that there was such a substratum of weak- 
ness in his selfhood as would permit him, apart from 
some foreign pressure, to drop down to cowardly 
denial of his master. The surface appearance is, that 
a personal Satan did sift him — did momentarily con- 
trol him ; and that the words of Jesus had reference 
to some personality, bent upon modifying the genu- 
ine qualities of this disciple. If such were the facts, 
here is evidence that spirits may exercise more or less 
sway over the actions of men. 

Agonies op Jesus. 

Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv., Luke xxii. Just before his 
betrayal and his consequent trial and crucifixion, com- 
ing events made their woeful pressures upon Jesus. 
He said, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death ; " he fell with face upon the ground and prayed, 
in an agony he prayed most earnestly ; his sweat was 
as it were great drops of blood. " O my Father, if it 
be possible let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, 
not as I will, but as thou wilt ; and there appeared 
unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him." 
No mind desirous of obtaining true conceptions of the 
nature of Jesus as he is presented in the biblical rec- 



220 



MAftVEL WORKERS. 



ords, should fail to scan liim here, while acting and 
suffering as overburdened humanity does, seeking 
and getting help by processes, and from sources, and 
with such results, as pertain to human experience. In- 
tense, prostrating, agonizing suffering; prayer — most 
earnest prayer for relief ; bloody sweats ; angel pres- 
ence to strengthen ; all these he experienced most in- 
tensely under the pressure and action of scenes yet 
to be born into the external, and before his earthly 
friends could anticipate his tragic end. Such suffer- 
ings as these up even to the furthest possible limits 
of physical and mental endurance, many mediums of 
this day have experienced just before the oncoming of 
great national, or urban, or domestic afflictions, and 
when severe drafts were about to be made by spirits 
upon the mediumistic aid of these sufferers, for the 
purpose of affording these spirits power to guide or 
to sustain some mortals. This age at large is quite 
ignorant of many transpiring events which are to fur- 
nish the brightest pages of its own history. 

FORSAKEN BY GOD. 

Matt, xxvii., Mark xv. When on the cross, Jesus 
cried aloud, " My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me ? " This sounds like an outburst of intense 
anguish from a soul in which there was conscious lack 
of self-relieving power. We call to mind no other 
instance in which Jesus ever used the word God in an 
utterance which might be called a prayer. This ejac- 
ulation is like the forced vent of physical suffering — 
like an involuntary outgush from an agonized mortal 
form. What evidence, or even what seeming is there 
that Jesus suffered, either more or less, or differently 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 221 

from what any man of equal sensibilities would have 
clone under like circumstances ? None whatever. 
And this argues him to have been but our brother 
man ; an eminent, great and good one, but only a 
brother. 

Crucifixion. 

Matt, xxvii., Luke xxiii. Attendant on the cruci- 
fixion, " the vail of the temple was rent in twain from 
the top to the bottom — the earth did quake — rocks 
were rent — graves were opened, and many bodies of 
saints which slept arose, came forth, went into the 
holy city, and appeared unto many ; also the sun was 
darkened." The rending of the vail, the quaking of 
' the earth limitedly, the darkening of the sun for a 
space around Jerusalem, may all fall within the scope 
of such spirit forces as have been indicated in the 
preceding pages. The palpable reappearance of de- 
parted saints, in great numbers, differs, perhaps, from 
anything yet specially considered. The now well- 
known power of the departed to so materialize them- 
selves, or so enrobe themselves in semi-matter, as to 
exhibit the same forms, features, motions, and cos- 
tumes which they presented in life here, permits a 
presumption that the old bodies of those ancient saints 
remained resting quietly in their graves, though the 
departed men and women themselves did reappear. 
The accumulated spirit auras generated by the vast 
hovering spirit bands at that momentous scene, would 
naturally permit spiritual manifestations in that hour 
and place, which would be very unusual in both kind 
and extent. 



222 



MARVEL WORKERS, 



Resurrection. 

Matt, xxviii., Mark xvi., Luke xxiv., John xx. 
The chief external marvels attending the Resurrection 
were a quaking of the earth ; rolling the stone from 
the mouth of the supelcher by an angel of the Lord ; 
the appearance of angels in white, sitting upon that 
stone, and also at the head and foot of the body's rest- 
ing-place. Such transactions and scenes are generally 
similar in kind to others previously noticed. Angels 
conversed briefly with visitors at the tomb. Jesus 
soon spoke to Mary, and told her not to touch him. 
Materialized spirits to-day are ordinarily, but not al- 
ways, subject to sudden invisibility upon the very 
close approximation of living bodies. This caution 
of Jesus intimates that his condition was such that 
the natural friendly grasp which her intense joy upon 
meeting him alive would prompt her to seek, was in- 
expedient. The materialized forms and robes of spir- 
it visitants now are often instantly dissolved by the 
near approach of material living bodies, and we infer 
that the visible form of Jesus was in such condition 
just then, that Mary's very close approach might dis- 
solve it. 

He shortly afterward walked in company with two 
of his disciples, who were journeying toward Emmaus. 
Though he conversed with them on the way, their 
vision was so vailed that they did not know him till 
the journey was ended. Then he revealed himself, 
and forthwith vanished out of their sight. These 
two disciples returned to Jerusalem, met the others 
there, and rehearsed their experiences of the day; 
when, lo, Jesus was in the midst of the congregated 



JESUS OF HAZARETH. 223 

band. He said to them, Handle me ; and he showed 
them his hands and his feet, saying, A spirit hath not 
flesh and bones, as ye see me have. True, as a spirit, 
a spirit does not have palpable flesh and bones. And 
yet modern tests, repeatedly made by human senses, 
have proved that at times a spirit can so present him- 
self in seeming flesh and bones, that man fails by his 
senses to find any difference between permanent and 
extemporized ones. 

Thomas was absent on that occasion, and, like a 
sensible man, could not base belief in the existence of 
such a marvel on the bare testimonj^ of his friends, 
however sagacious and truthful he might deem them. 
He doubtless conceived that those around him were 
deceived. He would not believe till he could see the 
print of the nails in the hands that had been fastened 
to the cross, put his fingers into the holes made by the 
nails, and thrust his hand into the side gashed by the 
spear. A true scientist, Thomas demanded proved 
facts to found his beliefs upon. He soon had them, 
for before many days, while he and his fellow-disciples 
were assembled in a room, with the doors shut, Jesus 
suddenly stood before their eyes, and " said to Thom- 
as, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and 
be not faithless, but believing." Thomas exclaimed, 
u My Lord and my God ! ' This exclamation we read 
as an expression of surprise at finding what his breth- 
ren had previously been made to believe was justified 
by the facts before him. He had cherished no more 
incredulity than a prudent man was justified in hold- 
ing until proof should generate faith. The time of 
that came, and his spontaneous utterance of surprise 

15 



224 



MARYEL WORKERS. 



was, " My Lord and my God ! " it is indeed true that 
our master has been raised from the dead ! 

After the above Jesus showed himself to a number 
of his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. There he so 
directed the casting of a net, that a large haul of large 
fish was taken, and he ate of them with his friends. 
Angels ate, or seemed to, with Abraham and Lot, as 
one did with Tobias also ; and Jesus may have ap- 
peared to eat with his disciples. 

Parting Commission. 

John xx., Mark xvi. When the hour for his final 
withdrawal from their external vision was nearly 
reached, Jesus " breathed o?i his chosen apostles or 
missionaries, and said unto them, Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost." This process of breathing out the Holy 
Ghost very distinctly indicates that it was some aura, 
such as would mingle with the breath, and through 
that be infused into those on whom it should fall. 
And what efficacy would attend its possession ? After 
it had been poured over them, and imbibed by them, 
they would have power to remit sins or not, at their 
option; for the Master then said, " Whosesoever sins 
ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose- 
soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Such would 
be its efficacy according to the conceptions of John ; 
while Mark reports the parting declarations more ex- 
plicitly in the following language : " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. . . . 
And these signs shall follow them that believe ," — i. e., 
those among you who shall be mediumistic, who shall 
be free recipients of spirit auras : "In my name shall 
they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 225 

they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any 
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay 
hands on the sick, and they shall recover." 

Yes, most clearly the special belief which he then 
enjoined, and which would be efficacious in promoting 
the good which Jesus mainly sought to have wrought 
out upon man, involved the equivalent of such me- 
diumistic states or properties as would be attended by 
such marvelous signs as the casting out of devils, 
speaking in languages they had not learned, and heal- 
ing the sick through imposition of hands. The lan- 
guage of the Bible nowhere teaches anything more 
clearly than that the faith which he desired his apos- 
tles to possess and apply, was identical in nature with 
the motive and operating powers in modern spirit me- 
diums, and therefore widely diverse from the faith 
most commonly cherished and commended in Chris- 
tian churches. Judged by the standard here furnished 
by the founder of Christianity, the mediums among us 
are much nearer in endowments, in faith, in belief, to 
those apostles into whom he breathed the Holy Ghost, 
than are the mass of those who teach in Christian pul- 
pits, or those of the laity who adhere closely to the 
creeds and usages of the churches. If any portion of 
the community is now eminently Christian,- — that is, 
is seeking more earnestly than others, by the exercise 
of such gifts as Jesus bestowed upon his immediate 
followers, to effect the forgiveness or remission of such 
sins as he specially sought to remove, and by such pro- 
cesses as he adopted and commended, that is, by cast- 
ing out demons, healing diseases, and working signs 
and wonders in attestation to their being aided by 
super-mundane powers, — it surely is the Spiritualists. 



226 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



The closest living imitators of Jesus, in both the ob- 
ject and processes of beneficent labors, are those who 
seek and obtain aid from finite supernal intelligences, 
and go about alleviating the distresses of their fellow- 
beings by processes which involve supernal aid. 

All such signs and wonders as would attend upon 
those apostles who were breathed upon and commis- 
sioned, as above, do at times attend upon some me- 
diums to-day, unless we make the remission of sins an 
exception. But an honest exception of that is de- 
barred. For the position taken by Jesus on another 
occasion, — viz., that to say to a bedridden, palsied 
man, " Thy sins be forgiven thee" and to say to him, 
" Take up thy bed, and walk," meant the same thing, 
— that position, coupled with the clear indication that 
he here makes the remission of sins and the healing 
of diseases identical acts, shows too distinctly for any 
doubt to exist that Jesus sometimes made disease and 
sin synonymous terms. 

In addition to, and in connection with, the above 
named works, those apostles were to preach the Gos- 
pel, and call men to repentance. The preaching and 
calling, modern ministers attempt to perform ; but 
they generally lack the success which the genuine 
signs of commission from Jesus, confirmatory of a call- 
ing from on high, or indicative of help from on high, 
would naturally procure. Incidentally most mediums 
preach good news, preach gospel, and they call many 
to repent of, and turn away from, immoral and in- 
jurious habits. Some of them devoutly and exten- 
sively enunciate important moral and religious teach- 
ings. Practically, however, an undesirable division 
of the prescribed apostolic labors exists. The clergy, 



CONCLUSION. 227 

to great extent, trudge on and sweat unaided by the 
strengthening signs, while sign-workers extensively 
omit direct verbal promulgation of either much gos- 
pel or many calls to repentance. The faith shown by 
works is more beneficent than that manifested by 
speech alone, but the two modes of manifestation, 
when combined, are more efficient than either alone. 
None other than vision which is distorted by precon- 
ceived opinions can fail to see that mediums for spirit 
operations upon diseased man are more productive of 
such beneficence as Jesus, when giving his farewell 
instructions, specially desired to promote, than the 
Christian clergy are. Disciples and lovers of Jesus 
will find his closest imitators and truest expounders 
among those upon whom the Holy Ghost — pure spirit 
aura — is poured out at the present day, and whose 
labors are approved by many " signs and wonders fol- 
lowing." 

Ascension. 

Luke xxiv. At Bethany he lifted his hands, and 
blessed his disciples, . . . and while blessing them, he 
was carried up into heaven. Marvelous was his en- 
trance among men, marvelous his work on earth, 
and marvelous his exit. 



CONCLUSION. 

In one very significant respect Jesus differed from 
any other worker of Bible marvels. Avowedly, The 
Lord, or God, or The Word of The Lord, or an angel of 
The Lord, or an angel of God, appeared to, or called 



228 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



to, the prophet, directing him to say or do thus and 
so. And when about to perform some mighty work, 
he was accustomed to make open appeal to some God 
for help. The evidence in some cases is clear, and in 
some others the inference seems necessary, that the 
prophets themselves apprehended that their controlling 
God was limited in his habitation, and unstable in his 
purposes, and therefore not superior in nature to the 
godlike angel whom John conceived to be the Infinite 
God himself. The apostles in like circumstances gen- 
erally, or at least very frequently, made an open call 
in the name of their Lord Jesus, as he, before his as- 
cension, had directed them to do whenever they should 
desire special gifts or helps. The conclusions recorded 
in this work indicate our own perception that proph- 
ets and apostles — some of them consciously, others 
perhaps not so — addressed and received responses 
from some intermediates between themselves and Je- 
hovah, our Father, the Infinite One, the Ultimate 
Giver of All things. The immediate communicators 
to them, like John's angel, were finite, and were at 
the same time recipients from intelligences above, and 
imparters to intelligences below themselves. 

Our Father, the father of every human being, 
Our, Father, was the term by which Jesus designated 
his object of adoration, designated that spirit whose 
acceptable worship must be spiritual and true. He 
gave a definite appellative to the Unknown God of 
Athens, " whose offspring we are, and in whom we 
live, and move, and have our being." Our Father 
is his name. A vaster, wiser, a more broadly philan- 
thropic and loving, a more stable and unchanging 
source of life and force was embraced in the compre- 



conclusion. 229 

hension of Jesus than in that of the older Jewish 
teachers. Though his God and their God may be 
deemed one and the same in this respect, viz., that 
each worshiped the highest that his powers and con- 
ditions possibly permitted, still the powers and condi- 
tions were so varied that many different Gods were 
worshiped by the different Jewish workers of marvels 
and recorders of the Scriptures. The Father of Jesus 
was to be worshiped neither in Jerusalem nor on a 
mountain near Sychar exclusively, but everywhere, 
and by all, because he was, and is, an all-pervading 
Spirit, greatly in advance of, superior to, and more 
impartial than, any object of worship ever steadily 
held in the conceptions of an Israelite before the day 
of Jesus. 

We do not find Jesus openly and audibly praying 
to any one for help when about to perform a marvel- 
ous work. In this respect he differed very widely 
from both prophets and apostles — so widely as to indi- 
cate that his relations to the Spirit of the Universe 
were peculiar, so widely that he constitutes a distinct 
class among Bible marvel workers. This is the sig- 
nificant point in his character or habits referred to in 
the opening sentence of this chapter. But it by no 
means follows from this that he did not pray to the 
Father who hears in secret and rewards openly. In- 
deed, he gave distinct intimation that such was his 
habit ; for, near the grave of Lazarus, he not onty felt 
conscious that he had been heard on that occasion, 
and furnished in advance with power adequate to 
awaken the deep, the very deep sleeper at his side, 
but also that his prayers were always heard. After 
the stone had been removed from the mouth of the 



230 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



cave, and before he called up the sleeper, he " lifted 
up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou 
hast heard me " — an influx of power he had already 
perceived. He then continued, "I knew that thou 
hearest me always," implying that it was his custom 
to pray for, and thereby to receive, help. He adds, 
" Because of the people which stand by, I said it, that 
they may believe that thou hast sent me." Thus 
clearly he has made known to us his dependence upon, 
and his habit of seeking aid from, some higher intel- 
ligence. 

In what modes, or through what agencies or agents, 
did occasional and extraordinary helps come to him ? 
He was generally unostentatious and quite reticent 
about matters pertaining to himself. Only by his dis- 
tinct avowal of the fact did the standers around the 
grave of Lazarus know that he had prayed, and learn 
that he sought aid from one above, and only indirect- 
ly does he indicate that special individual helpers may 
have attended him upon call. In an interrogative 
and very strong mode of assertion, he said to an 
attendant in an hour of turbulence and danger, 
" Thinkest thou not that I can now pray to my 
Father, and he will presently send me more than 
twelve legions of angels ? ' Obviously hosts of an- 
gels or spirits would throng around him at his earnest 
wish or silent prayer ; and as some modern mediums fre- 
quently sense intuitively the amount of force inflowed 
into them by spirits, and also similarly sense the quan- 
tum and quality needful to the accomplishment of a 
definite work on hand, in a like manner Jesus may 
have become conscious that he was already made able 
to call Lazarus forth, and therefore gave thanks for 



coKCLtrsioK. 231 

the special power to do it, even before he had tested 
its sufficiency. Thus light enough gleams forth to 
show that he may have been helped by finite spirits, 
though he probably was generally, if not always, a 
conscious director of whatever force went out through 
his system. 

So far as the records indicate, Jesus was seldom, if 
ever, used by any finite intelligence above, as simply 
an organ of communication with, or of action upon, 
this material world, or its visible occupants. He was 
not, in the usual acceptation of that term, a spirit 
medium, was not a mere instrument used by other 
hands, but generally appropriated, and adopted as his 
own, whatever was given forth through him. His 
marked attributes were those of a very clear Seer and 
sensitive Feeler, rendering him habitually cognizant 
of forces, states, causes, and oncoming events, occult 
to outward sense, so that he needed not that any finite 
should testify to him concerning any man, concerning 
principles or facts known among men, or help him to 
knowledge of forces or agents lying about him in the 
unseen. His spiritual perceptions constantly made him 
familiar with agents, facts, and forces there, and these 
were at his ready command by virtue of the excellences 
of his hallowed natal constitution and temperaments, 
which enabled him to live simultaneously and con- 
sciously in both the inner and the outer worlds, in the 
spiritual and material, and to avail himself at will of 
spiritual forces and allies. Those two worlds are 
partly identical in location ; the spiritual pervades the 
material, so that any man needs only unimpeded scope 
to his inner faculties, for sensing in at a breath much 
knowledge of, and for acquiring much power over, 



232 



MARVEL WORKERS. 



many spiritual beings and things which lie just out 
of, just above, or just below the cognizance of human 
senses and the grasp of external reason. The death 
of the body will give this free scope to every inner 
man. Some inner organisms possess it while the outer 
form still lives. The instructive language which Ba- 
laam applied to himself, Numb. xxiv. 16, may be ap- 
plicable to Jesus. He spoke as one who " heard the 
words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most 
High ; who saw the vision of the Almighty falling 
into a trance, but having his eyes open." 

Though the powers and processes of Jesus thus dif- 
fered from those common with prophets and apostles, 
and though his knowledge was often imbibed directly 
in spirit realms, his case, as to kinds of processes, is 
not without proximate parallels now transpiring. 
One of the most voluminous authors of the last 
twenty-five years possesses an organism Avhich lets 
his inner perceptives work in a similar way. He is 
not used by spirits mechanically, though he has often 
seen and conversed with them, and sometimes report- 
ed their sayings and doings. They do not entrance 
him to unconsciousness, or to the deadening or be- 
numbing of his faculties ; do not make him per force 
their mouthpiece ; do not make him their tool in any 
way. He seems to be a self-possessed spirit among 
spirits. His mind at times drinks in knowledge of 
itself at the same fountain where disembodied spirits 
obtain their supplies, and does it by their expedi- 
tious processes of sensing : as do many others now. 

This modern seer was not, in his earlier years, thus 
spiritually clairvoyant and absorbent. Mesmerism was 
applied to him in his youth, and, when entranced by 



CONCLUSION. 233 

that process, spirits may have spoken, and cured dis- 
eases through him. Afterward, however, his spirit- 
ual senses became so emancipated that his inner man 
could at times roam freely and safely in spirit realms 
Avithout known guide or helper. Though his form 
was the instrument of many marvelous cures in his 
youth, and under mesmeric influence, yet such mar- 
vels have seldom, if ever, attended upon him as a 
teacher. In that respect he differs widely from Jesus. 
The processes of acquisition with the two have strong 
apparent resemblances. But the words of one were 
confirmed by long-continued successions of most mar- 
velous works, while those of the other rest on their 
intrinsic merits. 

"What the nature of Jesus in its fullness was, or 
what his doctrines were, does not legitimately come 
up for consideration in this work. The Author's views 
upon those subjects have been neither obtruded nor 
suppressed intentionally. He has been looking at 
Jesus simply as a man, around whom and by whom 
many mighty works were performed. But while 
doing this, his opinions may have been, and no doubt 
were, often coming into view. Whether his views of 
the man, if sound, will strengthen, or whether they 
will weaken, the foundations of faith that an infinite 
being was joined with the human Jesus, so as to con- 
stitute but one person, and that one the infinite God, 
has in no instance been raised in his mind. Possibly 
one who believes that Jesus was God and man con- 
joined in some unprecedented manner may be able to 
receive and adopt without conflict all that has been 
here said. The object in view has been to present 



234 MARVEL WORKERS. 

mainly physical and anthropological points, regardless 
of considerations, either moral, religious, or theo- 
logical. 

We have been looking at very many marvelous 
manifestations and acts attending the birth, life, death, 
and resurrection of one of the most remarkable and 
noteworthy personages that ever wore the human 
form, one who made broad and deep impress upon 
nations and ages, who is worthy of profound rever- 
ence and welling gratitude, one who is godlike enough 
to constitute as fair and full an embodiment of the 
adorable attributes of The Infinite and Holy One as 
any finite of whom we have knowledge, nearly as fair 
and full as man can embrace in mental conception, 
and in whose name, therefore, or by whose invoked 
aid, we may wisely seek for our nearest possible ac- 
cess to Him who is dwelling in the " light which no 
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor 
can see." 

We can and do offer our prayers, put up our peti- 
tions, as the apostles did, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
deeming him the wisest and most efficient helper God- 
ward, and* the most affluent dispenser of heavenly 
gifts of any created being within our knowledge. 

The child of Mary came into life pursuant to pre- 
arrangements made in spirit realms for his conception 
and training under more spiritualized conditions than 
ordinary. His constitution was healthful and well 
balanced, harmonious, and yet intensely impressible. 
Mediumistic from birth, no doubt good spirits, visible, 
audible, and tangible by him, were his playmates, 
companions, teachers, and guardians, continuously 



CONCLUSION. 235 

from his infancy up to his ascension. We say no 
doubt of this, because many children have their inner 
senses so conditioned that they often see, play with, 
and converse with both infant and adult spirits ; most 
of those who were thus favored in times past con- 
tinued to hold such intercourse occasionally while 
growing up and in their maturity. Most mediums 
speak of having seen and heard spirits as far back in 
their lives as they have remembrance of anything. 

Presumably the qualities, proportions, and combina- 
tions of the constituent elements of Jesus furnished 
the constitution and temperaments which admitted 
free and strong alliance between him and spirits and 
spirit forces. High, pure, and powerful spirits were 
his associates and helpers, while low spirits and spirit 
forces were subject to his will. 

Endowed with strongest possible spiritual affinities 
with, and aided by such helpers, and reliant on his 
Father, Jesus walked the earth, locally, sovereign over 
men, demons, diseases, and the elements. Thus sup- 
poited, and also permeated with reverence toward 
God and love toward man, he used his mighty powers 
in doing good, in relieving afflicted, and in teaching 
benighted man. A glorious exemplar, an efficient 
helper, both while on earth and now in heaven. 
Love, wisdom, and power, put forth for man's re- 
demption from sufferings and sins, constituted Jesus 
of Nazareth an illustrious Son of God, a true child 
of purest spirit auras, or of the Holy Ghost. 



236 MARVEL WORKERS. 

On a well-remembered day, about forty-five years 
ago, when alone in his natal chamber, baffled and 
anguished by prolonged efforts to satisfy his mind as 
to the authority of the Bible, — ■ what is taught, and 
what was true, — the writer sent heavenward a deep 
and earnest aspiration, that he might be, as he then 
supposed many an one of old had been, a witness of 
such marvelous " signs and wonders" as should give 
unquestionable authority to the words of whoever 
should be empowered to do such " mighty works." 
Though then holding the prevalent belief that the day 
for such marvels was forever passed, — and logically, 
therefore, his prayer would be in vain, — something 
still prompted him to vow, and he did most reverent- 
ly vow, that if he should ever witness wonders like 
those of old, he would give heed to deeds and words 
from the marvel workers, and would be a faithful and 
true witness and testifier to what he should see and 
hear. 

Twenty years and more elapsed, and then modern 
signs and wonders came. The vow was still clearly 
legible on memory's record. Therefore duty — duty 
of the h'ighest class — called him to look and listen 
— called him to ascertain how far Heaven was re- 
sponding to his former aspirations. 

Study of the phenomena of Spiritualism has now, 
for twenty years, been with him a religious work — 
been the performance of the vow to the Great Author 
of all Truth. The vow required him to begin, and 
the work's own compensatory and cheering reveal- 
ments hold him to a continuance of investigation. 
One motive to this publication springs from that vow, 
and is felt to be pious and philanthropic. 



conclusion. 23 



n 



Purposing to view the Bible in the same spirit in 
which he would read and comment upon common 
literature and science, he discarded the tone and style 
of special reverence, and adopted more bluntness 
than is common with him. In truth, he felt it desira- 
ble, because it might further the accomplishment of 
good, to give shocks that might break the crusts of 
superstition which encase many minds — desirable to 
wound, that he might heal. 

However much biblical authors, personages, and 
events may appear to be metamorphosed by his pen, 
any seeming travesty of them is not burlesque — no, 
not that; for he has made an honest and benevolent 
effort to present scripture personages and events in 
their true characters, and show them to be worthy 
the attention and esteem of a philosophical and scru- 
tinizing age. 

To accomplish most successfully what he desires, 
it may be needful to grieve relatives, friends, and 
many others. He says to them kindly, but distinctly 
and firmly, that very many, that most of those whom 
he shall grieve, are idolaters ; unconsciously so, but 
yet, in truth, idolaters ; for they convert a book into 
an idol, or more correctly, perhaps, into a fetich ; that 
is, they worship an object that has no life. The 
writer himself unconsciously did this through many 
long years, and now knows that such a sin of igno- 
rance was all the while restraining his mental and 
spiritual faculties from such freedom as is essential to 
best unfolding in goodness. Such cramping idolatry 
is very common and very benighting among devout 
readers and conscientious reverencers of the Bible. 
That book in itself, and when conceived to be what in 
the preceding pages it has been showing itself to be, 



238 MARVEL WORKERS. 

is a good and useful book. But when it is deemed 
to be, and is appealed to as, an infallible guide, it 
becomes a fetich, and is baneful in some of its in- 
fluences. It was, in part, given mediately by inspira- 
tion of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. 
Very much of it, viewed as simply an honest record 
of what its authors understood to be sayings and 
doings prompted by supernal^ intelligences are emi- 
nently instructive and helpful to the soul. 

The long-continued, and still widely prevalent New 
England belief that our received English Bible is, in 
all its parts, the Word of God, and his only revealed 
word, has in the preceding pages been left unques- 
tioned. Each and every story or narrative the book 
contains has been tacitly allowed to be exactly true. 
The author placed himself on that platform, and 
there, standing by the side of the average reader of 
English, saw the Marvel Workers as he has described 
them above : he wrote for the mass of Bible readers, 
and in a way which they can understand and verify. 

Hope is cherished that this publication, though 
dealing only with well-known personages and events, 
may prove instructive and explanatory of the exact 
" ways of God to man ; " also, that it may be the 
means of convincing many a timid, forlorn, and thirst- 
ing soul that the Bible permits and even invites such 
sufferers to " try the spirits ; ' should they do this, 
and turn from the low, and hold fast to the godly, 
they may safely drink freely at existing and accessi- 
ble fountains, where loved ones and good, who have 
gone on before, yearn to outflow sweet waters of 
affection and wisdom, for the solace and instruction 
of those whom they have left behind. 









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